Mark Zuckerberg reveals Threads will get Web and Search features too

Meta’s newest text-based app Threads has gone somewhat quiet in terms of new feature launches in the last week. The Instagram-powered platform enjoyed its moment of success when it hit the coveted 100 million user mark just a few days after its launch, but ever since then, it has failed to build upon that sudden user surge. As per reports, more than half of its users have left the platform in recent weeks. Some users have highlighted the app’s lack of many basic features as one of the reasons for not preferring it over its rival platform X (formerly known as Twitter). However, things might change as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced that the platform will get two of its highly requested features “in the next few weeks”.

In the early hours of Saturday, Zuckerberg posted from his Threads account and said, “A good week for Threads. The community here is on the trajectory I expect to build a vibrant long term app. Lots of work ahead but excited about the team's pace of shipping. Search and web coming in the next few weeks”.

Notably, these were the two features alongside DMs that have been most requested by the users of the platform ever since the launch of the app.

Threads to get Web and Search features soon

The Web feature likely refers to the website support for the platform. So far, Threads is only available as a mobile app, although it does have its own website domain of threads.net. But upon visiting, you only see a spiral galaxy design in the background and a QR code on the front that redirects you to App Store or Play Store depending on whether your device is running iOS or Android.

You can still open post links on the web browser, but you cannot comment, like, or browse. This fundamentally limits the accessibility of the platform as many users simply prefer to use social media platforms on their computers and do not use their phones for long durations during weekdays.

Another feature expected to hit the platform is the search functionality. Right now, you can only search other users on the Threads app and not posts by looking up keywords. This means you can only find posts you are interested in by first finding out the account that posts such content or simply relying upon the algorithm to eventually bring it to your feed. Either way, this remains quite inconvenient for users who prefer following topics and accessing posts from those topics in a single view.

With “the next few weeks” as the target, Threads might be able to bring back some of its lost users by adding these relatively basic functionalities. However, this is simply the base of the mountain. Many users have also demanded a DM feature to interact with other users directly on the platform and a trending section to see which topics and posts are getting the most amount of engagement.

Meanwhile, its rival X has been adding new features almost every other day. Yesterday, August 4, Elon Musk, the owner of the platform tested out the live streaming feature and earlier this week he added video downloading feature for verified users. It is also expected that soon X will add a dedicated video section on the platform, similar to TikTok, Instagram’s Reels, and YouTube’s Shorts.