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Adam Mosseri to hand off day-to-day at Threads to Meta’s AI lead

After two years under Instagram head Adam Mosseri, Meta is officially handing off Threads to a new leader. Here’s what the change could mean for the app’s future. As first reported by Axios, Meta is naming longtime executive Connor Hayes, formerly head of generative AI product, as the new head of Threads starting in September. The move marks the first time someone outside Instagram will take the reins of the text-based social app, in yet another sign that Meta seems to be finally getting serio

Adam Mosseri steps back from Threads, app to be overseen by Meta’s AI lead

After two years under Instagram head Adam Mosseri, Meta is officially handing off Threads to a new leader. Here’s what the change could mean for the app’s future. As first reported by Axios, Meta is naming longtime executive Connor Hayes, formerly head of generative AI product, as the new head of Threads starting in September. The move marks the first time someone outside Instagram will take the reins of the text-based social app, in yet another sign that Meta seems to be finally getting serio

Meta appoints generative AI VP to run Threads

In Brief Meta appointed Connor Hayes, Meta’s VP of product for generative AI, to become the head of Threads, per Axios. Until now, Instagram head Adam Mosseri has been in charge of Threads. But the platform has grown into more than a side product of Instagram, necessitating additional leadership. Though Threads only launched in 2023, its mobile daily active user (DAU) numbers are fast approaching those of X, according to market intelligence provider Similarweb. Currently, Threads is averaging

Threads is testing Facebook account sign-ups

The option is mentioned in a support article but doesn't appear to be widely available yet. Threads is testing letting you sign up with a Facebook account rather than an Instagram account. The new option, spotted by Social Media Today, doesn't appear to be widely available yet, but is already mentioned in a Meta support article. Besides making it easier for people who don't have an Instagram account to quickly create an account on Meta's X and Bluesky competitor, this new Facebook sign up opti

Threads users still barely click links

Two years in, Threads is starting to look more and more like the most viable challenger to X. It passed 350 million monthly users earlier this year and Mark Zuckerberg has predicted it could be Meta's next billion-user app. But Threads still isn't sending much traffic to other websites, which could make the platform less appealing for creators, publishers and others whose businesses depend on non-Meta owned websites. According to Similarweb, a marketing intelligence firm, outbound referral traf

As X loses its CEO, daily usage is down and competition is growing

With the departure of X CEO Linda Yaccarino, which was announced Wednesday, the company that defined text-first social networking faces renewed competition. Year-over-year, the Elon Musk-owned social network has seen its daily active user base decline by roughly 10% as of the second quarter of 2025, according to new data provided by app intelligence firm Sensor Tower. While X’s user base is still 65% larger than Meta’s Threads and 10 times larger than its next-biggest rival, Bluesky, X’s lastin

Microsoft Teams now has threaded conversations

is a senior editor and author of Notepad , who has been covering all things Microsoft, PC, and tech for over 20 years. Microsoft has added threaded conversations to its Teams communications app this week. After promising to launch the highly-requested feature in mid-2025, Microsoft is now releasing a public preview of threaded conversations for Teams users to enable. The Microsoft Teams threads integration debuts in the channels section of the app, where it works a little differently to how Sl

Threads is nearing X’s daily app users, new data shows

Instagram Threads is close to catching up to top competitor X in terms of mobile app users, according to new data from market intelligence provider Similarweb. In June 2025, Threads’ mobile app for iOS and Android saw 115.1 million daily active users, representing 127.8% year-over-year growth; X reached 132 million daily actives, as its year-over-year growth declined by 15.2%. By comparison, decentralized social network Bluesky grew a sizable 372.5% year-over-year as of June, but its worldwide

Not everyone is thrilled with Threads’ DMs

Earlier this week, Instagram Threads launched what the company said was its most-requested feature to date: direct messages, also known as DMs. However, the company is now facing a bit of a user backlash over the addition, as users, primarily women, are arguing that there should be a way to opt out of DMs entirely, citing harassment concerns. Although DMs are a part of other social networks similar to Threads, including X, Bluesky, Mastodon, and others, some Threads users appreciated that they

Two years in, Apple is now officially on Threads

It took a minute, but Apple has at last activated its official Threads account. And thanks to its massive Instagram presence, it instantly picked up nearly 5 million followers. Today’s move comes well after several Apple-related accounts joined Instagram’s alternative to X right out of the gate. Apple Music, Apple News, Apple Books, Shazam, and Beats by Dre were among the first to show up shortly after Threads launched in mid-2023, but the main @apple account remained absent until now. Instant

Threads gets its own DMs as app distances itself from Instagram

Instagram Threads is rolling out users’ most-requested feature to date: the ability to message people directly, without having to switch to another app, like Instagram. The company said direct messages (DMs) will begin rolling out to users globally beginning on Tuesday, alongside a new visual element called highlighter. The latter will emphasize interesting perspectives and conversations, Meta says, starting with Trending Topics. At launch, Threads DMs offer a basic set of features. They’ll su

You Can Finally Use This Very Basic Threads Feature

Better late than never? Threads, Meta's answer to X (formerly Twitter) and Bluesky, was launched almost two years ago in July 2023, and saw immediate rapid signups after piggybacking off Instagram's user base. Despite being around for that long, it's just now giving us the ability to direct message other users. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg teased the new feature earlier this month as it was rolling out in beta. "We're starting to test DMs on Threads. If you get access to this -- slide through!" Zuc

Threads officially rolls out standalone DMs and debuts visual highlights

Meta just took another step in its belated but very welcome push to detach Threads from its Instagram roots. Starting today, the app is officially rolling out its own direct messaging system and a new visual highlights feature. Here’s how they work. Both updates mark the second anniversary of the app, which was officially launched on July 5th, 2024. And alongside the announcement, Threads also shared an interesting, but completely unsurprising fact, pointing to its increasingly independent futu

Two years later, Meta is making DMs on Threads official

Meta announced just a couple weeks ago that it would finally start testing a dedicated inbox for direct messages on Threads. Now, it's making the feature official and rolling out DMs to everyone. As with the earlier test, the update will add a messaging tab to the Threads app where users can access the inbox and exchange DMs with mutuals. Meta says that initially people will only be able to send messages to users who already follow them or mutual followers from Instagram, though it plans to rol

Threads now has DMs

is a news writer who covers the streaming wars, consumer tech, crypto, social media, and much more. Previously, she was a writer and editor at MUO. Threads has officially launched direct messaging for everyone. You can now privately message other users on the Meta-owned X rival, though Threads will only allow DMs between your followers or mutual followers on Instagram to start. You can send a DM on Threads by selecting the envelope icon in the toolbar at the bottom of your screen in the app. F

Threads launches its own DM inbox, as app moves further away from Instagram

Instagram Threads is rolling out users’ most-requested feature to date: the ability to message people directly, without having to switch to another app, like Instagram. The company said direct messages (DMs) will begin rolling out to users globally beginning on Tuesday, alongside a new visual element called highlighter. The latter will emphasize interesting perspectives and conversations, Meta says, starting with Trending Topics. At launch, Threads DMs offer a basic set of features. They’ll su

You can now mute words just on Threads, and even set a 30-day timer

It looks like Meta is finally treating Threads as its own app, rather than just an Instagram sidekick. After rolling out a standalone DMs system, Threads is now getting its own mute lists, along with something new (and very welcome): temporary filters that expire automatically. No Instagram strings attached In a post this week, Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced a revamped “Hidden Words” feature for Threads that includes its own independent word filters. Until now, muting a word on Threads

A New Threads Feature Saves You From Seeing and Posting Spoilers: Here's How It Works

Social media can accidentally spoil a streaming movie or show for those who haven't yet watched it. Threads, the popular social media platform from Meta, now has a new feature that could save you from spoiling your next watch. The new feature allows users to mark media and text posts as spoilers. If it's a photo, the spoiler will then appear blurred in feeds, and text will be grayed out. Clicking on both types makes the spoiler visible. Netflix and Marvel are the first major studios to use the

Threads now has a better word filter than Instagram

Threads has taken another step towards decoupling from Instagram by introducing its own word blocking filters. Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced on Thursday that the Hidden Words setting on Threads includes “newly added custom filters to block words, phrases, and emojis in batches, with optional time limits.” A previous version of Hidden Words was tied to Instagram, meaning you could only mute the same words and phrases across both platforms. This change enables users to tailor what they wa

Threads now has a Hidden Words setting that's separate from Instagram

This lets users filter out phrases they don't want to see in feeds, searches, profiles and replies. Threads and Instagram are continuing to decouple. Meta's social network has updated its Hidden Words setting to make it separate from Instagram. Prior to this update, users had one global Hidden Words setting that impacted both platforms. For the uninitiated, the Hidden Words setting lets users filter out stuff they don't want to see. The setting can be applied to posts, feeds, searches, profile

Threads now lets you manage Hidden Words separately from Instagram, set time limits

Threads, Meta’s competitor to X, now has its own Hidden Words setting that operates separately from Instagram. The feature allows you to filter out posts that contain words, phrases, or emojis you don’t want to see in feeds, search, profiles, and replies. Previously, Hidden Words was tied to Instagram, so the filters that you entered would be applied to content on both platforms. Now, you can create a separate list of Hidden Words on Threads to further personalize the content that you see on th

Basic Facts about GPUs

Basic facts about GPUs last updated: 2025-06-18 I’ve been trying to get a better sense of how GPUs work. I’ve read a lot online, but the following posts were particularly helpful: This post collects various facts I learned from these resources. Acknowledgements: Thanks to Alex McKinney for comments on independent thread scheduling. Table of Contents Compute and memory hierarchy A GPU’s design creates an imbalance since it can compute much faster than it can access its main memory. An NVID

A glitch is turning Threads into a literal echo chamber

We’ve heard it all — X is turning into a right-wing echo chamber, Bluesky is a liberal bubble, and so on. But a glitch on Threads has turned these concerns into a reality: everyone is saying the same exact thing over and over again. In a bug affecting some Threads users on desktop and mobile, it appears that one user’s post will get repeated over and over again, looking as though every user on your feed is saying the same thing. “Siri, unsubscribe me from 2025,” one Threads user wrote, per a s

Threads adds dedicated fediverse feed and profile search

After a year of slow, sometimes confusing steps toward fediverse support, Threads is now making it easier for users to actually see and discover content from other platforms. Here’s how it works, and how to enable it. Starting today, if you’ve enabled fediverse sharing in Threads, you’ll get access to a new reverse-chronological feed showing posts from federated accounts you follow on Mastodon, WordPress, Flipboard, or other ActivityPub-based services. What’s more, Threads is also rolling out

Threads is adding Fediverse content to social feeds

The Threads team at Meta has spent the past year working on supporting the broader fediverse and social web, and is launching its biggest integrations yet: a new dedicated feed for fediverse posts, and a way to search for fediverse users inside of Threads. Starting today, if you’ve turned on fediverse sharing in Threads, there will be a new section at the top of your Following feed that takes you to a list of posts from folks you follow on Mastodon, Flipboard, or wherever else you’ve connected

Threads adds new dedicated feed for fediverse content

Meta’s Threads is deepening its integration with the fediverse , a collection of decentralized social media platforms that includes Mastodon . Starting today, users who have enabled sharing to the fediverse in Threads will be able to see posts from federated accounts that they follow. These posts will now appear in a dedicated feed. From this feed, users can now search for federated users from within Threads. These posts will populate in reverse chronological order, ensuring the newest posts fr

Threads is adding fediverse content to your social feeds

The Threads team at Meta has spent the past year working on supporting the broader fediverse and social web, and is launching its biggest integrations yet: a new dedicated feed for fediverse posts, and a way to search for fediverse users inside of Threads. Starting today, if you’ve turned on fediverse sharing in Threads, there will be a new section at the top of your Following feed that takes you to a list of posts from folks you follow on Mastodon, Flipboard, or wherever else you’ve connected

Threads expands open social web integrations with fediverse feed, user profile search

Instagram Threads, Meta’s competitor to X, on Tuesday launched two new features as part of its plan to further integrate with the open social web, known as the fediverse. Now, Threads users will be able to see posts from other users on the fediverse within a dedicated feed if they’ve opted in to fediverse sharing on Threads. Plus, people will be able to search for fediverse users directly in Threads. Posts from federated users will be found on the Following tab of the Threads app. They don’t ap

Threads to get an anti-spoiler feature for TV and movie discussions

If you’re anything like me, you have probably hesitated to open Threads after a big TV episode dropped. But starting this week, Meta’s platform will start testing out a way for users to hide spoilers in both text and images. Here’s how it’s going to work. A long-overdue fix for spoiler-prone feeds First things first: yes, other social platforms like Mastodon, Telegram, and Reddit have long offered their own ways to hide posts, or certain parts of posts, in order not to spoil plot points, big r

Threads is testing out a way to hide spoilers

Meta is testing a way to hide spoilers on Threads, according to a new post from Mark Zuckerberg. The feature lets you obscure text or an image so that they're only viewable once they're tapped or clicked. In the current version being tested, you have to highlight your chosen text or tap on the image and then tap "Mark spoiler" to hide it. Inside the Threads app there's even a swirling particle animation that covers text and images before flittering away when you tap on them. Meta Meta suggest