The success of Bluesky pushes Threads to question itself

If Threads, Meta’s social network modeled on Twitter, remains well ahead of Bluesky in terms of number of daily users, we sense a certain panic emerging in the face of the success of the blue-sky social network. At last count, Bluesky had more than 22 million registered users. There were only 15 million two weeks ago.

Threads reviews its algorithmic flow

If there are many technical differences between Bluesky and Threads, one in particular summarizes the difference in philosophy of the two networks. Threads, built on the Instagram model, offers by default an algorithmic feed, based on the Internet user’s preferences and browsing habits. At Bluesky, we see posts from people we follow first. Everyone is free to then subscribe to alternative feeds which allow them to broaden their horizons.

A model that appeals, especially for people who have partly fled X to escape the trolls and other far-right influencers who abound there. Alerted to the success of his competitor, Adam Mosseri, CEO of Instagram and Threads, announced a few days ago that he was making adjustments to the Threads algorithm. The objective: to further highlight the content of the people followed.

“We’re readjusting the algorithm to prioritize content from people you follow. That means less content from accounts you don’t follow, and more visibility for accounts you do, starting today »writes in black and white the boss of the social network, who adds that this is a balancing act which will undoubtedly take time to find the ideal form. Also, influencers could experience a drop in their audience in the coming weeks. A necessary evil, believes Mosseri, to improve the engagement of Internet users from all sides on the network.

The default timeline flow?

But an even bigger change is in the works at Threads. Yesterday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that users of the social network will soon have the ability to select their default feed on the application. In short: continue to use the algorithmic feed as today or make the feed show the posts of the people followed in chronological order. The functionality is already being tested with a small panel of users.

This feature should delight people who make extensive use of the ability to create their own streams on Threads. For example, you can create a feed entirely composed of accounts talking about literature or music. With this upcoming change, we will be able to choose to make it the home page of the application on smartphone.

A fairly radical change in philosophy, which could allow Threads to regain some interest among the public. An audience made up of around 275 million active monthly users, who will soon have to deal with advertising, just like on Instagram.