If a user publishes a post with a link to a website or article on Elon Musk's X, very often they'll find that the post receives minimal views, retweets, and likes. Musk has previously confirmed that his social media platform, formerly known as Twitter, deprioritizes links via its algorithm.
X users have complained about this, but Musk wants people to spend the maximum amount of time on his platform. However, it appears one of X's competitors now views this as an opportunity.
Meta's Threads will now prioritize links on the platform in a few major ways.
Share more links in your Threads bio
In an update this week, Meta announced that Threads will now allow users to place up to 5 links in their bio. For comparison, X only allows users to post a single link in the "website" section of a user's profile page.
By allowing multiple links, Threads allows users to share more of their personal websites and projects with people on the platform. This might also help users circumvent the need to use link-in-bio services like Linktree to share multiple links on their Threads profile page.
Threads link analytics
Furthermore, Meta wants its users to know just how much traffic Threads sends from links posted on the platform.
The company announced that Threads will now profile users with link analytics that present data regarding the number of clicks that links receive via Threads. The platform will provide users with this information for links posted to both a user's bio and in their posts.
Link recommendations in Threads
While Instagram head Adam Mosseri previously claimed Threads didn't specifically downrank posts with links, Mosseri also said the platform didn't place much value on them either.
That's about to change, too, according to Engadget. Threads will now start promoting posts that include links at a higher rate than before via its recommendation algorithm.
Meta has started prioritizing content creators on all of its platforms in recent months. Prioritizing links seems like a big step in that direction as creators look to use social media platforms to promote their work, regardless of where it's posted.
We'll soon find out if these changes help Threads win over creators over its competitors like Musk's X and Bluesky.
