Threads adds new personalization and community features as it reaches 500M monthly users

Nearly three years after launching as a competitor to Twitter (now X), Threads has reaches 500 million monthly active users, the company announced Tuesday. The Meta-owned social platform also announced a series of new features launching today, including a “Your Algo” tool that lets users control what they see in their feed. The new Your Algo feature builds on the platform’s “ Dear Algo ” tool launched in February, which lets users tell Threads what they want to see more or less of in their feed by posting a public post such as, “Dear Algo, show me more posts about podcasts.” With the new Your Algo feature, users can privately control what they see in their feed without having to share a public post. You can tell Threads you want to see more or less of certain topics and choose how long the request lasts: one, three, or seven days. Only you can see the requests. Your Algo is rolling out today in the U.S., Canada, UK, Australia, and New Zealand. Image Credits: Threads By allowing users to temporarily influence what appears on their feeds, Threads gains an edge over X and other competitors by offering a feature that isn’t available on rival platforms. Threads is also bringing “Communities” out of beta and adding new requested features for it. Launched last year as a way to take on X, the feature give users dedicated spaces within the app where they can delve deeper into conversations on topics that matter to them like basketball, television, K-pop, books, and more. …