Threads now lets you search for posts using keywords: How to use the feature

Meta’s Twitter (now X) rival Threads has rolled out a keyword search feature to more countries, including India, on both mobile and web — which the company started testing in Australia and New Zealand last week. Along with India, the company rolled out the feature in Argentina, Mexico, the UK, and the US. In Meta’s chief executive Mark Zuckerberg’s words, the feature is now rolling out to “most” English- and Spanish-speaking countries. With the new feature, you can look for posts that contain the keywords you searched for — something that has been available on X for a very long time.

“Today, we’ll start rolling out keyword search in English and Spanish, in countries where most people post in those languages — such as Argentina, India, Mexico, the UK, and the US — on both mobile and web,” Meta said in a blog post on Thursday. But the company also said that it is “working on bringing the feature to other languages and countries as soon as we can”. Threads began testing the feature in Australia and New Zealand last month, giving users a way to search through all the posts on the platform using just a keyword.

How to use the new search feature in Threads

The new feature, which is gradually rolling out to users in supported markets, works from within the Search tab. After you have opened Threads on your Android or iOS device, follow these steps:

— Go to the Search tab, symbolised by a magnifying glass

— Type the keywords to look for associated posts and hit enter

— The first batch of results would include users related to the search term, but to look for posts, tap on “Search for” right below where your search term is

— A new screen will open with all the posts on the platform associated with your search term

Currently, it is not clear if private posts are also included in search results, but we will get a clear idea in the coming days.

The drop in Threads’ popularity

Instagram’s Threads has been in steady decline after peaking at around 50,000 daily active users globally on Android devices in early July and now stands at around 10 million. According to the digital intelligence platform Similarweb, the numbers are less than a tenth of Twitter’s user base. That is a colossal downfall for the active user base of Zuckerberg’s rival to Twitter (now known as X).

Over 10 million people joined the social media app within seven hours of its July 5 launch, according to Zuckerberg. Threads became the most downloaded non-game app on its first day in a decade, as per the market intelligence data provider Sensor Tower, and surpassed 100 million users. The report also mentioned that the users on Threads spend just 2.4 minutes a day on the app, down over 80 percent from its early July peak.

— Written with inputs from IANS