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Threads’ chaotic “For You” feed quantified

How old are the posts Threads are recommending to its users?

8/27/24 11:20AM

Since Twitter's rapid unscheduled disassembly following Elon Musk's purchase of the platform, hundreds of millions of users have turned to Meta’s Threads as a potential replacement for the newsy town square experience, minus the hate speech and crypto scams.

The year-old platform now has over 200 million users and has been rapidly adding features to achieve golden age Twitter product parity. While users have been praising the improved quality of discourse, and a seemingly functional content moderation team, one the most frequent complaints has been how bad the default “For You” feed view is for following breaking news, something that Twitter (in the pre-Musk days) excelled at.

Threads users routinely mock what seems like a pretty consistent 48 hour delay for event-specific posts, which is especially frustrating as we live through one the most chaotic election years in recent memory.

Post from @miasato.2 — (Threads post from @miasato.2)

To try and better understand how much the algorithmic “For You” feed varies from the more straightforward, reverse-chronological “Following” feed, I analyzed 300 posts from both feeds from my Threads account.

No recent posts For You

When I plotted out the age of each post from my “For You” 300 post sample, indeed it does show a chaotic scramble.

If there was an earthquake in your area, and you jumped onto Threads on your phone, the default view you see is “For You,” which includes accounts you don’t follow. Based on my sample, it’s very unlikely any urgent posts on breaking news would show up until hours later.

Over one-third of the posts in my “For You” feed were between six and twelve hours old. Only 12% of the posts happened within an hour of seeing them in my feed. If you really want to follow what the chatter is surrounding a breaking news event, you should be looking at your “Following” feed. Of course, that relies on you having a well-curated list of people who follow and share news.

When I plotted the posts from my “Following” feed, which includes posts from the 954 accounts that I follow, you can see a very different pattern. A clear line of posts going up and to the right, indicating a reverse-chronological series of posts getting older as I scrolled down my feed. 38% of the posts in this feed were posted within an hour, and the vast majority were less than six hours old. Much more useful for breaking news.

Stubborn default settings

Users have been clamoring for a way to control what their default feed view is, but Meta loves the algorithmic feed, so in order to swap views, you need to know where to find the controls for this, which isn't exactly obvious. On mobile, you have to reveal the hidden controls by tapping the Threads logo. It's a bit easier on the web, where you just click on the drop down menu at the top of the feed. On the web, you can also just bookmark https://www.threads.net/following to get straight to the most recent stuff.

Another thing that makes the stubborn initial “For You” feed problematic, is that by default, Threads limits recommending any “political content” from users that you aren't following. You have to dig into your settings to opt-in to see recommended political posts from accounts you don't follow. This decision has been criticized by political observers and creators, especially during this intense election year. The company does not limit political posts in your “Following” feed.

This dataset is admittedly a small sample, of just one account at one moment in time, so your mileage may vary. Meta says that Threads' AI system “blends” content from recommended posts and accounts you follow, and considers your inferred interests and your behavior on the platform to decide what to show you.

A quilt of Threads posts. — Some of the 300 Threads posts in this analysis. (Image: Jon Keegan)

But you will have to take Meta's word on it. Earlier this month Meta shuttered its CrowdTangle tool, which provided researchers with a crucial view into what content is shared on Facebook and Instagram. Meta recently released a Threads application programming interface, but right now it mainly enables automated posting and a platform-wide analysis isn't yet possible.

Like the rest of Meta's algorithmic systems, it continues to be a black box.

Meta did not respond to a request for comment.

Rani Molla8h

Elon Musk says Tesla Robotaxis are operating without drivers, sending stock higher

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that Tesla’s Robotaxis are now operating in Austin without a safety monitor. Tesla has been testing driverless cars in the area for about a month, and Musk had previously said the company would remove safety drivers by the end of 2025.

It’s unclear how many exactly of the roughly 50 Robotaxis the company operates in the area don’t have drivers. Tesla is “starting with a few unsupervised vehicles mixed in with the broader robotaxi fleet with safety monitors, and the ratio will increase over time,” Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s head of AI, posted shortly after Musk. Ethan McKenna, the person behind Robotaxi Tracker, estimates it’s two or three vehicles.

What is clear is that the move is good for Tesla’s stock, which is currently up 3.5%, extending its gains after Musk’s tweet. Morgan Stanley said yesterday that it considers the removal of safety drivers a “precursor to personal unsupervised FSD rollout.” Unsupervised Full Self-Driving is widely considered to be integral to the would-be autonomous company’s value proposition.

At the World Economic Forum earlier on Thursday, Musk said, “Self-driving cars is essentially a solved problem at this point.”

Just started Tesla Robotaxi drives in Austin with no safety monitor in the car.

Congrats to the @Tesla_AI team!

If you’re interested in solving real-world AI, which is likely to lead to AGI imo, join Tesla AI. Solving real-world AI for Optimus will be 100X harder than cars. https://t.co/OnP8gredWD
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 22, 2026

Jon Keegan10h

Survey: CEOs and workers have wildly different thoughts on AI productivity gains

One of the main reasons companies are rushing to adopt AI is to give their workers the miraculous productivity boost that AI companies have been promising — and believe will quickly earn back their investment.

But now that companies have been using AI for a while, a growing perception gap is emerging between the C-suite and their employees.

The Wall Street Journal reported on new findings by research firm Section, which surveyed 5,000 white-collar workers from companies with more than 1,000 employees.

More than 70% of the corporate executives in the survey said they were “excited” by AI, and 19% of them said the tools have saved them more than 12 hours of work per week.

But nonmanagement workers had a very different take on AI. Almost 70% of this group said AI made them feel “anxious or overwhelmed,” and 40% said the tools saved them no time at all.

CEOs Say AI Is Making Work More Efficient. Employees Tell a Different Story.

The Wall Street Journal reported on new findings by research firm Section, which surveyed 5,000 white-collar workers from companies with more than 1,000 employees.

More than 70% of the corporate executives in the survey said they were “excited” by AI, and 19% of them said the tools have saved them more than 12 hours of work per week.

But nonmanagement workers had a very different take on AI. Almost 70% of this group said AI made them feel “anxious or overwhelmed,” and 40% said the tools saved them no time at all.

Rani Molla10h

Tesla jumps as Musk says he expects Optimus sales next year, European and Chinese FSD approval next month

Tesla CEO Elon Musk now says he thinks the company’s Optimus robots will be for sale to the public “by the end of next year.”

According to Musk, “That’s when we are confident that there is very high reliability, very high safety, and the range of functionality is also very high.”

Like many of Musk’s other timelines, that’s later than he previously predicted. In 2024, for example, Musk said the AI robots would be for sale in 2025.

Speaking with BlackRock CEO Larry Fink on a panel today at the World Economic Forum, Musk said the robots are currently doing “simple tasks” in Tesla factories, but believes “they’ll be doing more complex tasks and be deployed in an industrial environment” by the end of this year, before going on sale to the public in 2027.

Musk forecasts a future with “billions” of AI robots that “saturate all human needs.”

On a separate topic, Musk was bullish on regulatory approval for what Tesla calls Full Self-Driving technology in markets outside the US. “We hope to get supervised Full Self-Driving approval in Europe, hopefully next month, and then maybe a similar timing for China,” he said. Musk has said in the past that the pending regulatory approval for FSD in Europe is a key reason why Tesla’s sales in the region have been tanking.

Rani Molla12h

Waymo is now offering autonomous rides in Miami

Google subsidiary Waymo announced Thursday that it’s officially open for autonomous ride-hailing in Miami, expanding the company’s coverage area to six US cities. The company will be “inviting new riders on a rolling basis” to take rides across its 60-square-mile service area, which includes the Design District, Wynwood, Brickell, and Coral Gables. Waymo said it plans to expand to Miami International Airport “soon.”

Competitor Tesla currently operates a ride-hailing service with a safety monitor in the vehicle in Austin and the Bay Area.

Rani Molla13h

Apple to promote Siri from assistant to chatbot

Bloomberg reports that Apple plans to transform its Siri assistant into a full-fledged chatbot similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

The chatbot would be integrated throughout the iPhone’s operating system rather than offered as a stand-alone app. It’s expected to arrive later this year and would be separate from more incremental, non-chatbot improvements to Siri rolling out in the coming months aimed at making the existing assistant more usable.

Both updates will be powered by Google’s AI models, Bloomberg reports, but the chatbot upgrade will be more advanced and akin to the much-lauded Gemini 3.

While the difference between an assistant and a chatbot may sound subtle, it represents a meaningful shift for Apple, which has long avoided a fully conversational interface and has lagged rivals that embraced one. Any new Siri chat capabilities could also eventually extend to other Apple devices under development, including wearables such as the pin Apple is developing.

Apple to Revamp Siri as a Built-In iPhone, Mac Chatbot to Fend Off OpenAI