Meta’s social network Threads is expanding the number of topics available through its newer communities feature. The company announced the expansion on Monday. This move may encourage people to use communities less on platforms like Reddit and X.
Threads initially launched over 100 communities last October, including spaces for basketball, television, K-pop, and books. This was done to better compete with other social networks. With this new expansion, Threads now offers more than 200 communities. New additions include team-specific spaces such as Lakers Threads, Knicks Threads, and Spurs Threads.
The company is also testing flairs within communities, a feature common on Reddit. This allows users to add a customizable label underneath their username. For example, in an NBA community, a user can display the team they support. In a books community, someone can indicate if they are an author.
Threads is testing a “Champion” badge to reward highly engaged community members. The company stated it is giving these badges to only a limited number of people who are both highly followed and actively participate in conversations within a community.
The social platform, which competes with Elon Musk’s X and startups like Bluesky, crossed 400 million monthly active users this past August. This milestone came two years after its launch. The company also noted this fall that more than 150 million people now visit the site daily.
To date, Threads has focused on engaging and retaining users with various features. These have included direct messages, group chats, ephemeral posts that disappear after 24 hours, and other additions.