Meta’s Threads is rolling out its own take on Bluesky’s “Starter Packs,” which are curated lists of suggested accounts that help new users find people to follow. Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced on Thursday that the social network is testing a way for users to find and easily follow collections of profiles that post about certain popular topics on Threads.
The launch comes two weeks after TechCrunch reported that Threads was working on the feature.
The suggested collection of profiles will be shown to new users when they sign up for Threads, and they will also be displayed within the app’s For You feed. The collections will focus on a variety of different topics, such as pop culture and recipes.
Threads already helps new users find people to follow by connecting them to accounts they follow on Instagram. But the platform may have been threatened by how popular Starter Packs have become on Bluesky since they allow people to instantly connect with others by joining a growing community. (You can find TechCrunch’s Starter Pack right here.)
Meta has been moving quickly to update Threads at a time when many X users are moving to Bluesky, which recently surpassed 20 million users and is now nearing 25 million.
For instance, Threads recently rolled out custom feeds to allow people to curate feeds around specific topics or certain user profiles. It also started testing the option for users to choose their For You, Following, or a custom feed as default. Plus, it rolled out changes to surface more content from people you follow in the app’s “For You” algorithmic feed in response to complaints from users who wanted to see less content from people they don’t follow.
The social network has been working to add new functionality based on user feedback, likely in an effort to keep them from moving to Bluesky, which is catching up with Threads when it comes to daily active users.
Bluesky experienced a surge in users after the U.S. presidential election, as X adopted a more of a right-wing stance and after Musk used the social network to campaign for President-elect Donald Trump.
