Meta could finally launch Threads feature users are waiting for

Company is still lacking many basic features, weeks after launch

In this photo illustration, the Threads logo is displayed on a cell phone on July 05, 2023 in San Anselmo, California (Getty Images)

Meta could soon launch a web version of Threads, as users grow frustrated with the lack of features on the platform.

Threads was launched early in July, and quickly became the fastest growing app ever. It appeared to have been launched early to capitalise on the problems that have engulfed Twitter since Elon Musk bought it and renamed it X, and quickly gathered users as a result.

That speed of launch does however appear to have left the app without a variety of basic features. In the weeks since, the company has been rushing to add new ways of using the app that have been missing since its launch.

In recent days, for example, Threads has added the option to share threads posts on Instagram DMs, see a list of liked posts, and sort the accounts that are being followed.

But it is still lacking perhaps the most basic feature of any social network: the ability to use it outside of an app. While many rival networks such as Twitter began as web versions, Threads still does not have a version that can be used on desktop computers or outside of the app.

In a recent post, head of Instagram Adam Mosseri said the company is “working on it”.

“We’ve been using an early version internally for a week or two,” he wrote on Threads. “Still needs some work before we can open it up to everyone though…”

Mark Zuckerberg also said two weeks ago that the company was looking to build a “vibrant long term app” and that it had “lots of work ahead”. That includes the addition of “search and web”, which he said would arrive “in the next few weeks”.

Now the Wall Street Journal has reported that the web version of the app could come as early as this week. But it noted that the “launch plans aren’t final and could change”.

Threads does offer some features on the web. Users can click on links to Threads and see individual posts and replies, for instance, but there is no way to get back to a feed of accounts that a user is following.

Instagram has always been relatively resistant to adding new platforms to its social network. The main Instagram app has only a relatively scaled-down version as its web offering, and it still does not offer a version of its app for iPad.