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Track Your Favorite Topics with Ease
Threads, Meta’s text-focused social platform, is testing custom feeds that let people follow specific topics or profiles. CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the feature as a way to make following interests such as sports or tech news less dependent on whatever the main recommendation feed happens to surface.
That is a meaningful shift in emphasis. Social platforms have long promised personalization, but “personalized” often means an algorithm deciding what a person may want to see. A custom feed puts a clearer instruction in the user’s hands: show posts from these accounts, and show results connected to this topic. It does not remove Threads’ existing “For You” experience, nor should it. It gives people another lane when they want to move from broad discovery to a more intentional reading habit.
For users, the appeal is straightforward. Someone following a fast-moving sports story may want one place to check relevant posts without manually searching each time. A person tracking tech news may prefer a feed that combines selected profiles with topic results, rather than switching between an account list and search. The value is not that custom feeds make social media quieter; they may not. The value is that they make the noise easier to organize around a purpose.
Read more about Meta’s Moderation Meltdown on SquaredTech.
Creating a feed does not require a power-user workflow
Threads’ proposed setup is deliberately simple. Users can search for a topic, tap the three-dot icon next to the search term, and choose “create new feed.” Profiles can be added directly as well: tap the three-dot icon above a profile photo and select “add to feed.” Once created, custom feeds appear alongside the “For You” and “Following” tabs.
That placement matters. Features meant to improve control often get buried in menus, which limits their practical value to the people willing to hunt for them. Putting feeds beside Threads’ two central views suggests Meta sees them as part of ordinary browsing, not a niche settings option. A custom feed only changes behavior if it is easy to return to, especially when a user wants to check a particular subject quickly.
There are limits. Users cannot yet set either their custom feeds or the “Following” tab as a default view. That means Threads still opens around its broader product logic rather than around the user’s chosen feed. For many people, that may be a minor friction; for users who want a strictly chronological, account-led social experience, it is a more consequential constraint. The feature expands control, but it does not hand over the front door.
How the custom feeds work
According to Threads spokesperson Alec Booker, a custom feed presents a mix of posts from selected profiles and search results for chosen topics. Those posts appear in reverse chronological order, prioritizing timely updates over a ranking system that decides which item should lead the feed.
The combination of profiles and topic search results is the important detail. A feed made only from chosen accounts is useful, but familiar: it is essentially a narrower following list. Topic results can make the feed more flexible, capturing relevant discussion from beyond a user’s existing set of profiles. That can be especially useful when an event is developing and the most useful posts are not all coming from the same established accounts.
It also raises the central challenge for any topic-based feed: relevance is not always neat. A topic search can be broad, and conversations can move quickly or use inconsistent language. Threads’ test will therefore be judged not only on whether users can create a feed, but on whether the resulting mix feels useful enough to become part of their routine. Reverse chronological ordering helps make the rules clear once posts enter the feed. The harder question is what the chosen topic captures in the first place.
Currently, Threads is testing the feature with a small group globally, with plans to expand availability soon. That testing status is important. It means the feature is not yet a settled part of the experience for everyone, and its eventual reach will determine whether custom feeds become a defining Threads tool or simply an option used by a smaller group of highly engaged users.
Threads and Bluesky are taking different routes to the same demand
Bluesky, a competing platform, introduced custom feeds earlier. Its approach offers a similar kind of control, but the article’s comparison points to a key difference: Bluesky’s implementation requires more technical knowledge, or third-party tools such as SkyFeed. Threads is attempting to make the same basic idea feel native and accessible through the standard app interface.
That distinction is not trivial. Technical flexibility can be attractive to people who want highly specific feeds and are willing to learn how to make them. Most social users, though, are not looking for a project. They want to follow a topic, add a few profiles, and see what is new. Threads’ three-dot workflow is aimed squarely at that audience.
There is a trade-off in every product decision of this kind. A simplified tool can reach more people, but it may offer less room for advanced customization. A more technical system can support deeper experimentation, but it can exclude users before they ever see its benefits. Neither model is automatically better. The real question is whether a platform’s chosen design matches the kind of community it wants to retain.
Both Threads and Bluesky are growing as users explore alternatives to X, formerly Twitter. Threads head Adam Mosseri recently announced 15-million-user growth in just one month, while Bluesky has crossed the 15-million-user milestone overall. Those figures place custom feeds in a competitive context: user growth gets attention, but daily usefulness is what gives people a reason to keep returning.
Custom feeds may become one of the features that shapes that retention. A large social platform can offer reach, but reach alone does not solve the familiar problem of finding the conversations that matter. Threads’ simplified approach could give it an edge for audiences looking for an easy way to personalize their experience. The test is modest in form, yet it speaks to a larger expectation: people increasingly want their social feeds to reflect active choices, not just passive recommendations.
Check out a similar article: Threads Makes a Big Move: A New Feature for Open Social Web Evangelists! Published September 14, 2024 on SquaredTech.
