Proactive Investors - Meta Platforms Inc's Threads is introducing new features to its social media platform in a bid to enhance user engagement while aiming to capitalise on the difficulties being faced by rival X (formerly Twitter).
Users will now be able to create polls and incorporate GIFs directly within the Threads post composer, a move that brings Threads in line with functionalities already present on the Musk-owned platform.
Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s chief executive officer and founder, demonstrated these additions, showcasing a poll feature that allows for up to four options and includes a real-time countdown timer.
To view poll results, participants must vote, after which Threads will send a notification once it concludes.
Additionally, to simplify video sharing, a new GIF icon enables users to search trending GIFs from Giphy or locate specific ones using the search bar.
Furthermore, Instagram head Adam Mosseri revealed ongoing tests had been taking place on Threads, including exploring view counts for posts and the ability to pin replies, innovations already familiar to X users.
Mosseri said in a post: “View counts are interesting as I think if we were shipping Instagram or Facebook (NASDAQ:META), today, we would probably have them. They give people a better sense of their reach, and generally, more feedback is a good thing.”
Meta's efforts to refine Threads demonstrate a commitment to improving user experience on the platform, which already boasts nearly 100 million monthly active users since its launch in July.
It's been a year since Elon Musk took over X and user and advertiser numbers have plunged, with the banks that financed the US$44 billion deal, including Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) and Barclays (LON:BARC), sitting on an estimated 15% hit.
X app downloads have fallen roughly 38%, monthly active users by 14.8% and its US ad business was down 60% over the year, according to data reported by Axios.
Shares in Meta lifted a little over 1% in pre-market trading on Friday, having closed at around US$288.