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What Threads’ Starter Packs are meant to do
Meta’s Threads has launched its own version of Starter Packs, a feature closely associated with Bluesky. The basic idea is straightforward: curated collections recommend accounts around popular subjects, including pop culture and recipes, so that people have somewhere useful to begin rather than arriving at an empty feed.
Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced that the feature is currently in testing. New users will encounter these collections during sign-up, while existing users may see them in Threads’ For You feed. That placement matters. A recommendation tool only changes behavior if people actually encounter it at the moment they are deciding who and what the app is for. By putting Starter Packs both in onboarding and in the main discovery feed, Threads is treating them as more than a directory feature.
For a social platform, the first follows can have an outsized effect on whether a person comes back. Follow a handful of active accounts that share your interests and the service starts to feel inhabited. Follow nobody, or get an unhelpful stream of unrelated posts, and the experience can feel like work. Starter Packs attempt to shorten that gap between creating an account and finding a community.
Threads already has a meaningful advantage in that it connects users with accounts they follow on Instagram. That can make starting on Threads less intimidating than joining a service from scratch. But Instagram connections do not necessarily map cleanly onto the reasons someone may want to use a text-focused social app. A person may want recipes, pop culture discussion, or a particular interest community without wanting their Threads feed to mirror their existing Instagram social graph. Curated packs offer a faster route into those narrower spaces.
That is also why Bluesky’s version has resonated. Its Starter Packs help users quickly locate people and communities that might otherwise be difficult to find through a general feed. Threads’ adoption of the same broad approach is an acknowledgement that account discovery is not a minor convenience. It is part of the product’s identity.
Related reading: Threads Makes a Big Move: A New Feature for Open Social Web Published September 14, 2024 on SquaredTech
Threads is adjusting the feed, not just the welcome screen
Starter Packs arrive alongside a series of Threads updates aimed at retaining users and competing with Bluesky, which now has over 20 million users and continues to grow. The competitive pressure is not simply about getting people to download one more app. It is about giving them reasons to make that app part of a daily habit.
Threads’ recent changes include custom feeds, allowing users to curate feeds around specific topics or profiles. It has also added default feed options, so users can set the For You, Following, or a custom feed as their default. And Threads has improved content surfacing by showing more posts from followed accounts in the For You feed, addressing complaints that users were seeing too many unrelated posts.
- Custom Feeds: Users can curate feeds based on specific topics or profiles.
- Default Feed Options: Users can set their For You, Following, or custom feeds as default.
- Improved Content Surfacing: Threads now shows more content from followed accounts in the For You feed, addressing user complaints about unrelated posts.
These features work together more closely than they may appear. Starter Packs help a user decide whom to follow. Custom feeds help organize those interests once they have been found. Default feed settings give the user more control over which version of Threads they see first. Showing more followed accounts in For You makes the platform feel more responsive to those choices.
The common thread is control. Social apps depend on recommendations, but a feed that seems disconnected from a user’s stated interests can make recommendation systems feel arbitrary. Threads’ move toward more followed-account content responds directly to that tension. It does not abandon the For You model; it adjusts the balance between algorithmic discovery and the accounts users have deliberately selected.
That distinction is important in a market where users can move between services with relatively little friction. Bluesky has gained traction among daily active users, and it continues to attract former X users. The appeal of an alternative platform is often less about a single feature than about the feeling that a feed is understandable, relevant, and shaped by people a user chose to hear from. Threads’ recent updates suggest Meta sees that expectation clearly.
Related reading: Bluesky’s Rapid Growth and the Social Media Race Published November 16, 2024, 2024 on SquaredTech
Why copying a useful idea can still be a smart move
There is little mystery about the competitive context. Bluesky’s Starter Packs have become popular because they make community discovery immediate. Threads is now pursuing a similar outcome, at a time when Bluesky has seen a surge in activity following political shifts on X, formerly Twitter.
Calling this a rivalry does not mean the platforms have to look identical. Threads’ existing connection to Instagram gives Meta a built-in way to introduce people to accounts they already know. Bluesky’s Starter Packs have emphasized a different starting point: finding a group organized around an interest, a conversation, or a shared set of accounts. Threads is trying to combine the benefits of its existing network with that more intentional form of discovery.
The challenge is editorial as much as technical. A starter collection has to feel useful rather than generic. Topic labels such as pop culture and recipes are broad enough to welcome new users, but the value lies in whether the accounts inside a pack give people a credible entry point into an active conversation. If the selections are relevant, users can get to a satisfying feed quickly. If they are repetitive or poorly matched, the feature risks becoming another recommendation surface users scroll past.
There is a broader implication for the social networking market. The contest is no longer only over who can provide an endless stream of posts. People increasingly expect ways to shape that stream: by following accounts, building custom feeds, choosing a default view, and joining communities without spending days searching for them. The services that reduce that early friction have a better chance of turning curiosity into regular use.
Threads’ Starter Packs are therefore a practical response to a practical problem. They give Meta another mechanism to retain users who might otherwise migrate to Bluesky, while helping new users find communities from the outset. Paired with custom feeds, default feed options, and changes to the For You feed, the feature points to a platform trying to make its experience feel less accidental.
Whether that is enough to strengthen Threads’ position will depend on how those pieces feel in everyday use. But the strategy is sound: community is not created by asking people to wait for a feed to improve. It is created by helping them find the people, topics, and conversations that make returning worthwhile.
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