Instagram is threads Rolling The most requested feature of users ever: without switching to any other app like Instagram, the ability to directly convey people. The company said the direct message (DMS) would start rolling out for users at the global level starting on Tuesday, with a new visual element called highlighter.
The latter will emphasize interesting approach and interaction, says Meta, starts with trending subjects.
At the time of launch, threads offer an original set of DMS features. They will support one-on-one chat, preset emoji reactions, ability to report spam, and muted DMS (on Instagram). Other features, such as group messaging, inbox filters and more advanced message control, will reach later in release.
This means that today, you cannot block mutual by giving a message to a follower or mutual – you can only block them on threads, which will also block them on Instagram. To control which message you can give you, you have to choose whether you follow the user or not.
At the time of launch, DMS 18 will be available for users of 18 and above, where threads are available except Japan, Australia, UK and European Union.
In addition to DMS, threads become more competitive with other text-first social apps such as X and Bluusky, where users can engage directly with each other or in group chats, such as in the case of X.
However, while x is working Encrypted direct message Within X Chat, threads have no intention of achieving their personal messaging facility tightly.
“We are not encrypting our DM,” Emily Dalton SmithProduct Threads VP. “It is really about to connect directly and talk to people that now, about what is happening, which I think makes an encryption less core for experience.”
Instead, he said that DMs are for construction of the community that people have created in a public place on threads – a network that is taking shape to completely separate from its original app, Instagram, Smith said.
“One thing that has been especially exciting is that we have seen that people are creating their own drawing on threads,” he said. “They are constructing that we think as an interest graph that is new and different that is different from the social graph that outlines their account on Instagram.”
Meta stated that the top of the social graph of Instagram, which more than a third of people fall in daily threads, have less than 50% overlap between their Instagram connections and threads connections.
“Instagram is really for creativity and the thread is really for the approach,” Smith said.
The company also found that users are following various sets of people in Instagram and Threads and engaged in various interests and interactions.
Due to this increasing disconnect between apps, Meta aims to test other methods to use threads without Instagram account.
For example, it is testing users testing the ability to log in with its Facebook account (in Europe) or make only a thread-eating. It is also testing the ability to use threads from the web, while not logged in.
The threads creator community is also unique. Although it may include those who are popular creators on other platforms, some have become creators on threads. An example David Rushing, A Emotional fan that created NBA Threads community.
Smith said that threads want to make it easier for their users to find such communities, and this is an important part of the upcoming roadmap of the app.
On this front, the threads initially introduced tags (eg hash # hashtag without a symbol) to organize the conversation. After this, it made the subject feed so that you could see everything that was being discussed around the area. Now attention will be on identifying those who are active and top contributors within a community.
Threads hope that the next few months will show more suggested users to search and follow the recommendations.
The new highlight facility can also help here.
Whereas today, this feature will highlight the trending subjects related to the content you read, when you scroll for your feed, over time, threads can highlight the approach to users or active conversations, which you want to jump within various subject feeds.
Currently there is no other plan to mud the threads beyond advertisements, Smith confirmed, even though the meta has an AI feature that can be integrated into the experience, the way XE’s AI Chatbot, Groke is used to sell XE Premium Subscription.
Instead, the meta focuses on receiving the first advertisement, while the use of AI to give electricity to things in the background, for example, like the headlines and summons of trending topics.
This does not mean that the team will be related to AI facilities below the road.
“We consider, perhaps, all thoughts,” Smith said, “but we are really just building on what our community tells us and is trying to prioritize such a small and growing app.”
Threads are not small, to be clear; The app has 350 million monthly active users, which is much higher than new people like Bluusky, which is 37 million registered usersBut compared to the family of Meta’s apps, where the user’s bases are counted in billions, threads still have a lot to prove their corporate parents.
Next to the global launch, DMS was tested in some markets earlier this month, including Hong Kong, Thailand, Argentina and Brazil.
