Meta’s latest social network and the bane of Elon Musk’s X is gearing up to become the company’s next billion user app. In the recent earnings call, Mark Zuckerberg revealed that Threads now has “just under” 100 million monthly active users. This number is very significant considering the app has yet to be released in the European Union.
In the same call, Zuckerberg made Meta’s ambition for Threads very clear and that is to transform Threads into a “billion-person public conversations app” with a positive atmosphere.
New Features in the Wake of Ambition
To achieve those lofty ambitions, the team over at Instagram and Threads have been working to fold in even more features into the app. Let’s be honest, they’ve been on a roll! The team is now bringing even more engaging features such as a native GIF picker and polls.
You will now be able to host polls on Threads natively. Creating polls is straightforward. Users can add up to four poll choices for a 24-hour duration. Unfortunately, there’s no option to adjust the poll duration just yet. While polls are accessible on Threads for Android and iOS, the web version is yet to support this feature.
Threads is also introducing an in-app GIF picker, powered by GIPHY. It’s available for both new posts and replies. Users can easily access a library of searchable GIFs by tapping the “GIF” button. This feature is available in the latest app updates for Android and iOS.
One drawback to note is that Threads, like Meta’s Messenger app and Instagram, still restricts Android keyboards, like Gboard, from inserting GIFs. When users attempt to insert a GIF using Gboard, they receive a message stating that Threads doesn’t support this functionality. While the app adds exciting features, this limitation might be frustrating for some.
