Threads, a meta-owned social network, is now implementing a “Recent” filter to rank search results by the most recent post. Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri said on Monday that the launch is part of a “limited test” and that only a few people have been given access to the function.
“We’re starting to test this with a small number of people, so it’s easier to find relevant search results in real-time,” he said in a response to a user’s query.
Threads has struggled to completely replicate X’s real-time aspect, despite its efforts to entice former Twitter users with features like text-focused posts, bookmarks, reposts, quote posts, and more. However, Meta has deprioritized political speech, a prominent subject on X, and said that it would not promote that material to users. Furthermore, the For You feed sometimes contains articles that are many days old. When news breaks, threads may seem far behind. For example, when the NYC/NJ earthquake occurred, it took around a half-day to reach the app’s trending section.
A user in the latest test reported seeing “Top” and “Recent” filters on the search results page. They noticed that the “Recent” filter is not perfectly chronological, but it is more effective than the “Top” filter for finding new articles.
Threads unintentionally introduced the ability to sort search results by recency earlier this year. At the time, the corporation described it as an “internal prototype available to a small number of people.”
Last November, Mosseri warned that Threads lacked the ability to search for real-time results, which may create a “safety loophole.”
“To clarify, having a comprehensive list of every post with a specific word in chronological order inevitably means spammers and other bad actors will flood the view with content by simply adding the relevant words or tags. “And before you wonder why we don’t remove that horrible stuff, keep in mind that there is a lot more content that people don’t want to view than we can or should remove,” Mosseri stated at the time.
