Finally, the Threads team is listening to me.
Back in October last year, I posted this:
Now, that’s pretty much exactly what Threads is testing, with a new feature that will enable you to swipe right or left to indicate whether you want to see more or less of this type of content in your feed.
You can thank me later.
In all seriousness, this is a critical feature for Threads, as the current Threads algorithm is still too connected to Instagram, with your Instagram interests often dictating what posts you see on Threads. But for most people, they likely use the two apps very differently, and really, Threads needs its own, wholly separate algorithm to maximize engagement in-stream.
And this is a good UI, providing both positive and negative endorsement via simple actions. The only challenge will be in ensuring that Threads users understand what it means, and how it works, because many are not as connected to the latest platform updates and changes as you clever folk who read SMT.
But if Threads can establish this as an embedded behavior, it could be a big step in refining your Threads experience, along more specific interest and topic lines. And that could help to boost Threads engagement, with the expansion of Trending Topics also providing better connection to real-time discussion.
It'll be interesting to also note whether Threads uses this as an indicator of popularity more broadly, kind of like up and downvotes. If an account is getting heaps of left swipes, that probably indicates that people don't like its content, which could see it penalized by the algorithm at an account level. We don't know how Threads is going to approach this as yet, but it's another feedback element that could guide engagement mapping.
The Threads team says that a limited number of people will have access to the new option in the initial test phase. Threads further notes that it will “iterate and improve on this feature based on feedback”.
