Keyword search coming to Threads, Already testing in some regions

August 31, 2023

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Threads by Instagram continues its consistent roll out of features in order to become a true competitor to X/Twitter since its launch last month. One of the most glaring omissions since the app became available to download is the lack of a search feature, however, this will be changing soon.

It was confirmed today by Mark Zuckerberg via a post on Threads that a keyword search feature will be coming to the app soon. This was quickly followed with a post by Instagram Head, Adam Mosseri, who confirmed this and added that a test is underway in Australia and New Zealand.

Testing of the keyword search feature starts today and will be rolling out to other English-speaking regions soon. There was no specific timeframe provided for the rollout in stable but Mosseri did add that they are also working on adding more languages and requested feedback from those who are already testing the feature. This is pretty significant considering that, as it stands, the only thing you can search for in the app are other accounts.

The announcement comes just days after Threads rolled out its highly requested, but not fully featured, web app. It remains unclear how the addition of a web version of the app has helped the platform gain or retain users, but my guess is that the result has been positive considering the public feedback I’ve seen throughout the app in response to the feature rollout.

Threads struggled with user retention, after having a stellar launch, with its number of active daily users seeing a steep decline. Most blamed the lack of feature parity with the app Threads is trying to compete with — X, formerly known as Twitter, for the apps sudden downfall.

However, it appears that Zuck, Mosseri, and the Threads team are not sitting on their laurels and are instead working diligently to bring most of these features to the platform as soon as humanly possible. With the mostly highly requested features already implemented or on the way (Web client, Following feed, Keyword search), the team can now move on to working on the implementation of Direct messages, hashtags, and other features that the competition already offers.

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