Threads is finally adding a 'Trending Now' section for all U.S. users

Written by Alex Watt, Lead Strategist

Finally, the big news Threadheads have been waiting for… Starting today, Meta’s Threads is adding a new ‘Trending Now’ section in the app for U.S. users.

Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri announced the new feature on Tuesday, revealing that trending topics will be shown in both the search page and in the ‘For You’ Feed in the app.

THE KEY INFO:

Threads has been steadily adding new features since it launched as a competitor to X (Twitter) last year, but this is the one we’ve really been waiting for.

One of the key strengths of X is being the place people go to find out and talk about what’s happening now, so the lack of trends in Threads made it a tricky sell as a true contender to X’s crown as the leading reactive, trending topics platform.

This could now be set to change with the launch of the ‘Trending Now’ section for U.S-based users – and if/when it proves popular for the Stateside audience, it’s likely that a UK rollout will follow very soon.

Currently the feature doesn’t appear to be widely available on mobile devices, but it is available for all on the web – and again, we’d expect this to change to a full mobile rollout very soon.

Threads gained 70 million users within 48 hours of its launch last July, as users frustrated with the direction of X under Elon Musk made the switch, but growth slowed after that, in part due to the lack of a trending topics feature to rival X.

However, although interest in Threads waned for some, there is clearly still an appetite for an X alternative with Threads monthly active users now topping 130 million according to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

This rollout of the ‘Trending Now’ feature in the U.S is strongly timed again from Meta, as frustrations with both X’s rebrand and direction as a platform under Elon Musk’s guidance, plus Musk’s outspoken and controversial presence on the site continue.

For some X users, this is the update they’ve been waiting for so they can fully commit to a platform switch to Threads and it’ll be interesting to monitor how this impacts new user sign-ups in the U.S. over the coming weeks.

If it proves an effective update for Threads in the U.S., we can expect this to be rolled out to the UK too in due time, which is also something we’ll be keeping a very close eye on.

Meta has a history of taking other platform’s ideas and using them to their advantage - Stories became more popular than Snapchat and Reels has risen hugely over the last 12 months to contend with TikTok – which could be cause for concern for Musk and X.

Although X will continue to be a major part of marketing plans for many, this again shows why it’s important to keep exploring these new channel opportunities – until now Threads has been a secondary creative reactive channel for many brands, to X and TikTok.

But with this potential UK update for Threads looming, it might be time for marketers and brands to start ramping up their presence on the platform in preparation and anticipation of another increase in users.