Meta testing 'trending topics' feature on Threads

Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerburg has announced that the company is testing a new "trending topics" feature on Threads that will allow users to see what kinds of conversations are trending on the platform.

The company is initially rolling out the test for users in the US and will roll out in more countries and languages once it is ready.

"Rolling out a small test of today's top topics on Threads in the US. We'll roll it out in more countries and languages once we get it tuned up," Zuckerberg said in a Threads post.

According to Meta, the feature will uncover "timely topics that others are discussing" and will appear in search as well as between posts in the app's For You feed.

"Today's topics on Threads will be on the search page and in the For You feed. The topics are determined by our AI systems based on what people are engaging with right now on Threads," Instagram head Adam Mosseri said.

Meanwhile, Meta has said that it will not proactively suggest political content to users by default on Instagram and Threads.

Mosseri announced the change in a Threads post, saying that users will still see political content from accounts they follow, but the apps will no longer "proactively amplify" such posts.

This control will also roll out on Facebook at a later date, the company said.