Panicked by the success of Bluesky, Threads will change its operation

The surge in the number of Bluesky users, boosted by the arrival of many dissatisfied people from X, pushes Threads to question itself. Destabilized by its competitor, the Meta social network decided to evolve its algorithm to try to keep the advantage.

Threads adopted its current form after the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk, in 2022 // Source: Frandroid

Adjust the Threads algorithm to show users less content from accounts they don’t follow. This is the main measure announced a few days ago by Adam Mosseri, boss of Instagram and Threads. The person concerned responds here to the criticisms which have been made by a growing number of users in recent weeks.

This change in algorithm occurs above all in a context of change in the balance of power between Threads and Bluesky, both competitors of X.

Both have experienced rapid growth mainly due to the purchase of Twitter by Elon Musk in 2022. This acquisition has indeed pushed, and still pushes, many users of the platform to look for alternatives.

Bluesky’s success seems to worry Threads executives

« We’re rebalancing (our algorithm) to prioritize content from people you follow. This means that starting today, we’ll recommend less content from accounts you don’t follow, and more articles from accounts you follow “, explained Adam Mosseri in a post published just before the weekend.

« This is definitely a work in progress – it’s difficult to balance the ability to attract followers with overall engagement – ​​thank you for your patience and please continue to provide us with your feedback ».

Instagram and Threads CEO Adam Mosseri // Source: Adam Mosseri on Facebook

Mosseri explains, however, that these changes will certainly have an impact on content creators. The latter could, in fact, suffer from a lower reach of their posts. A compromise that Threads is visibly ready to make to improve user engagement (always more important on posts emanating from their own subscriptions, than on recommended publications, pushed by the algorithm).

In any case, Meta wants to deploy these changes as quickly as possible on Threads, while the dynamic is now to Bluesky’s advantage. The social network has just passed the 20 million user mark after a long period of relative stagnation. An indicator that the leaders of Threads take seriously… even if the latter has a total of 275 million active users.


Source: www.frandroid.com