Threads Is Testing the Ability to Choose a Default Feed
On Friday, I wrote about how Threads is making big changes to its platform , namely that the For You feed will start prioritizing accounts you follow over accounts you don’t follow. In my opinion, this is similar to how a social media platform should work in the first place, but hey, it’s “new”.
It seemed clear that the impetus for change was the recent meteoric success of Bluesky : although Threads still has about ten times as many users, it is Bluesky that is experiencing a new moment in online culture, and Meta has clearly taken notice. While competition seems to have pushed Threads in the right direction by showing people more of what they presumably want to see (posts from people they actually choose to follow), there remains room for improvement. It’s great that the “For You” feed will feel a little more relevant, but if you want to stay exclusively in the “Followings” feed so you can only see content from the accounts you follow, well, it’s a shame: the For You value is used by default, which means that every time you start a new Threads session, the application switches back to that feed. If you only want to see Subscriptions, you’ll have to manually click on it each time. At least for now.
It looks like Threads isn’t done making big changes this week. On Monday, Mark Zuckerberg posted on his social network that Threads is testing the ability to make any channel the default channel. This means you can switch from For You to Subscriptions so it’s the default every time you open the app, or choose a different custom channel altogether. This is what you might call the radical innovation of social media in 2024: giving you the power to shape your Threads experience so you see what you want to see, rather than allowing yourself to be consumed by endless algorithmic content.
View in topics
Of course, being in “testing” means the feature isn’t widely available yet, and Zuckerberg hasn’t given a timeline for when it might be available to more users. However, The Verge has some instructions on how to choose a default channel if you find yourself part of a test group.
How to set the default feed in themes
To get started, open Topics, scroll down to view your channels, then long press on any channel. In the pop-up window, select Edit Channels . If this feature is available on your end, you will be able to change the channel order using the three line button. Place the one you want as default at the top, then click Done to lock it.
(If you don’t have this feature, you’ll just see a list of your channels without the ability to move them. Sigh.)