Facebook has recently been testing a new feature, by the name of "Threads", allowing users to link relevant posts together while having them share the same core audience.
If you're at all familiar with social media and the internet, you've encountered conversation threads. They're a medium most commonly found on, and associated with, the likes of Reddit and Tumblr (sites that are predominately about conversations over various topics). The purpose of threads in these platforms is to help keep conversations tidy and accessible to newcomers. Since discourse surrounding a single topic often tends to discuss multiple points about it, online comments can be very haphazard to go through. The solution? Creating a system where newer comments can "reply" to the one comment that's relevant to what they'd like to address. This way, all relevant comments are threaded together, and are easier to read. Twitter included this feature for users as well, even if it isn't necessarily encountered as much on the platform.
It seems that Facebook wants to join in on the fun too! As noted by social media journalist and guru Matt Navarra (who got tip from @valionk), the social network has introduced the ability to thread posts together. Since the reply feature's already available on Facebook's interface, threading comments does seem pointless. Therefore, it seems that the social media platform decided to let its users link relevant posts together to form a thread. For individuals that encounter the feature, a pop-up prompt follows as well, explaining the situation. It's a simple description, stating that users will be allowed to conjoin different posts together. All of the accompanying posts in a new thread will, however, share the audience garnered by the first post. That way, only relevant individuals get to join in on the conversation, and matters don't get too haphazard.
This is an interesting way of keeping conversations fresh. While Facebook's success is nowhere near done with, the social network does need to struggle in order to maintain relevancy. Especially with the presence of other social media apps such as Twitter, Instagram (which, to be fair, is also owned by Facebook), Snapchat, and Reddit, audiences are hard to come by and very easy to lose. The ability to thread conversations, however, is something that can effectively be used to have more engaging discourse. People can cite other posts, bring different parts of a topic into the conversation, and ultimately have a pretty good time of it. Even if the idea has been done to death, it's introduction in Facebook is something that the general community can make use of.
As it stands, the feature is not fully available to everyone. It is under A/B beta testing, where random individuals in certain regions can encounter the feature, utilize it, and therefore test it for Facebook. Who knows? It could be a while before the feature is properly integrated into the platform's interface for everyone to use.
Read next: Facebook tests anti-extremist feature in the US; Users can now report extremism or be notified when in contact with extreme content
If you're at all familiar with social media and the internet, you've encountered conversation threads. They're a medium most commonly found on, and associated with, the likes of Reddit and Tumblr (sites that are predominately about conversations over various topics). The purpose of threads in these platforms is to help keep conversations tidy and accessible to newcomers. Since discourse surrounding a single topic often tends to discuss multiple points about it, online comments can be very haphazard to go through. The solution? Creating a system where newer comments can "reply" to the one comment that's relevant to what they'd like to address. This way, all relevant comments are threaded together, and are easier to read. Twitter included this feature for users as well, even if it isn't necessarily encountered as much on the platform.
It seems that Facebook wants to join in on the fun too! As noted by social media journalist and guru Matt Navarra (who got tip from @valionk), the social network has introduced the ability to thread posts together. Since the reply feature's already available on Facebook's interface, threading comments does seem pointless. Therefore, it seems that the social media platform decided to let its users link relevant posts together to form a thread. For individuals that encounter the feature, a pop-up prompt follows as well, explaining the situation. It's a simple description, stating that users will be allowed to conjoin different posts together. All of the accompanying posts in a new thread will, however, share the audience garnered by the first post. That way, only relevant individuals get to join in on the conversation, and matters don't get too haphazard.
Here’s a few more screenshots of Facebook’s NEW threaded posts feature
— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) July 2, 2021
Facebook says it’s currently testing the feature with a small number of Pages for Public Figures pic.twitter.com/6FktgqWMTd
This is an interesting way of keeping conversations fresh. While Facebook's success is nowhere near done with, the social network does need to struggle in order to maintain relevancy. Especially with the presence of other social media apps such as Twitter, Instagram (which, to be fair, is also owned by Facebook), Snapchat, and Reddit, audiences are hard to come by and very easy to lose. The ability to thread conversations, however, is something that can effectively be used to have more engaging discourse. People can cite other posts, bring different parts of a topic into the conversation, and ultimately have a pretty good time of it. Even if the idea has been done to death, it's introduction in Facebook is something that the general community can make use of.
As it stands, the feature is not fully available to everyone. It is under A/B beta testing, where random individuals in certain regions can encounter the feature, utilize it, and therefore test it for Facebook. Who knows? It could be a while before the feature is properly integrated into the platform's interface for everyone to use.
Read next: Facebook tests anti-extremist feature in the US; Users can now report extremism or be notified when in contact with extreme content
