When it first launched, Meta’s Threads platform was called out as the best alternative to Elon Musk’s Twitter, now X.
The rollout was major as the app managed to gain global success in such a short time but things did not go as planned and the platform really had to rethink its strategy to keep users from leaving.
Today, the app stands at over 200M users, as it turned one with a bang and many milestones of the app were celebrated by Meta but it seems like the company may still need to focus on the ‘For You’ feed as it’s far from perfect. It’s become such a nuisance that users cannot stop complaining.
The feed was slammed as a bad default version that gave breaking news stories hours after they happened. It’s something that X excels in and Threads needs to get its act together if it does hope to serve as stiff competition.
Some users are speaking about 48-hour delays for posts linked to events and that’s truly frustrating. Remember, the elections are also coming up and no one wants to see stories so late.
A quick analysis does show the chaotic scrambling of posts where nothing recent is highlighted. It’s highly unlikely to get information about trending events like earthquakes or a plane crash so don’t even bother.
As per Sherwood, the For You feed entails information from accounts you’re not following and more than a third of posts were 6 to 12 hours old. If you really want to know what news or trends are buzzing, you should stick to the Following feed. This will entail all of your followers and accounts you enjoy sharing and viewing. Thankfully, most of them are less than six hours old so that’s a win.
Another serious issue that many are facing is the stubborn default settings. Many are working long and hard to find the solution as to how default feed views can be controlled. Meta adores the algorithmic feed so you need to enter the Threads logo. It’s so much simpler on the web where you press the drop-down menu at the feed’s top and get what’s most recent.
Meanwhile, more things that make the whole process stubborn is how problematic the For You feed is by default. The app limits all kinds of political content from accounts you don’t follow. You need to go down deep and find news about the elections for instance. Thankfully, that’s not the case for the Following feed.
This dataset is just a small example of what to expect and what not to expect on Threads’. It might be different for others, depending on how your account is set up. As a whole, Meta claims the inclusion of AI in the Threads app blends both recommendations and content from accounts being followed. They also combine the users’ interests and behavior on the app as the deciding factor for content.
Read next: Threads Enables More Fediverse Sharing By Allowing Likes And Replies From Other Servers
