Meta's Threads reaches 500 million monthly users and rolls out new features

The platform is exiting its Communities feature from beta and adding several capabilities designed to make topic-focused groups easier to find and participate in, the company said. A new Communities Hub will appear in the main menu to the left of users' feeds, allowing them to switch between communities more easily. Communities will also receive distinct icons, and users will be able to track when a topic is close to reaching community status.

Additional community features include a local communities option, starting with native-language tags in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, along with expanded champion status for active community members. In the coming weeks, the company said it plans to extend Live Chats to more communities, with co-hosting and the ability to quote moments to a user's feed.

Threads is also introducing a feed-control feature called Your Algo, a complement to its existing Dear Algo tool. With Your Algo, users can privately specify topics they want to see more or less of in their feeds, and set how long each preference lasts — one, three, or seven days. The company said only the user will be able to see those requests. Your Algo is rolling out in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand, the company said.

Advertising has become an increasingly central part of Threads' growth strategy, positioning it as a rival to X $TWTR in the battle for digital ad spending, Reuters reported.

Threads launched in July 2023. The platform has moved to add direct messaging and a visual highlighter feature around its two-year anniversary, as Meta works to establish Threads as a standalone platform distinct from Instagram. At the time of that rollout, Threads had 350 million monthly active users, according to Meta's earnings disclosures — meaning the platform has added 150 million monthly users since then.