Since the US election, the X exodus has helped increased the user base of social media platforms like Bluesky and Threads. Bluesky has seen 500% growth since the election, and Threads added 15 million signups in November alone, according to Threads creator Adam Mosseri. As X continues to lose followers, other social media platforms are scrambling to come out on top.
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On Thursday, Mosseri announced a major change to Threads’ algorithm to compete with the likes of Bluesky. The social media platform is “rebalancing ranking to prioritize content from people you follow, which will mean less recommended content from accounts you don’t follow and more posts from the accounts you do starting today.”
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Threads
This is a major change to the platform because it allows users to default to seeing more of what they want to see when they first open the app. Just yesterday, Threads rolled out its custom feeds after briefly testing the feature, which allows you to compile a list of multiple accounts in one shot, typically all devoted to a specific theme or subject.
“Threads is playing catch-up with Bluesky,” ZDNET’s Lance Whitney reported. Bluesky launched its custom feed feature in May 2024, while X offers a similar option called Lists.
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This also means that creators “should [expect] to see unconnected reach go down and connected reach go up,” Mosseri said. He added, “This is definitely a work in progress — balancing the ability to reach followers and overall engagement is tricky — thanks for your patience and keep the feedback coming.”
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Threads also seems to be exploring a Threads-specific DM system, which would be advantageous since Bluesky has that edge over the platform.
