Several developers were quick to spot Meta’s Threads app exploring monetization opportunities through ads. However, Instagram did confirm that it’s not experimenting with ads, as of yet.
The news comes after reverse engineers showed references of the app to several app products and sponsored offerings. We always knew it would come soon and now we just need to figure out when it would be the case.
Social media expert and enthusiast Alessandro Paluzzi was one of the first to explore the feature and publish a post related to this on his X account. It showed how the term sponsored was put against a Threads account username.
Despite all the evidence published so far, Meta is clearly downplaying the news. It failed to give out more details but did confirm that no testing of ads was taking place as of now and that there was no urgency. Also, it highlighted how there was no timeframe for monetization of the app.
Hence, ads are not on the horizon for Threads soon but the app is working on rolling out new changes for users right now. Amongst those is the ability for users to toggle online privacy.
As shown by Ahmed Ghanem, the platform rolled out a new privacy feature where users control online status. For now, it’s not clear if this is for the general account or also available to DM.
Meanwhile, the app is also adding its own twist to the popular X/Twitter lists. This will include Media tab options for profiles as it hopes to refine and better the entire Twitter experience. Clearly, Twitter is the inspiration here as are many other updates on Threads.
For starters, we know how the platform’s user profiles will get Media tabs as seen on X. This gives users the chance to go to all picture and video posts that were shared.
You can quickly filter the users’ profile offerings by simply resorting to their picture and video offerings. This is great and very useful, especially when you are looking for a certain update. It also is great to summarize what a certain profile is all about.
Threads are also prompting users to curate customized feeds with profiles that interest them or keywords that resonate more than others. Similar to how the feed on X works, users design a new listing of posts from specific people. This is accessible through the main app and allows users to stay at the top of relevant discussions.
Post by @theahmedghanem
View on Threads
Customized lists feature certain profiles and searches based on keywords. You can even select the Recent tab for the most updated posts and use that as your default option. Each time, you will be able to toggle. It’s a little irritating but since Meta is garnering a lot of engagement through the feature, do expect the same for Threads.
All these changes seem to be aligned with the head of Instagram’s pledge to invite users to a more fufilling in-app experience which is similar to features on X. Adam Mosseri did admit how he cannot see all the features bettering app engagement, it would certainly be useful for all.
We saw Mosseri hint at lists on the Threads platform in February of this year as it was requested highly by many people. However, he did feel that this was not as great of an offering as they had anticipated it to be, and we feel he’s right.
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