It took two years for Threads to get messaging, but you thankfully don’t have to wait that long to be able to start group DMs. Meta has started rolling out group chats for the app, which lets you add up to 50 of your followers to a single conversation. Just start a new message and add anybody who follows you on Threads. The company says that you’ll also be able to share a link that your followers can click to join a group conversation “soon,” so you don’t have to add them one by one. Like in messaging apps, you’ll be able to customize the group chat’s name to better reflect its topic.
In addition to launching group DMs, Meta is also releasing the messaging feature in the European Union over the coming days. If you’re in the EU, you’ll get access not just to individual DMs, but also to group DMs, messaging controls, privacy settings, the hidden folder where spam goes to and support for media files when the feature becomes available in your country.
Emily Dalton Smith, Meta’s Head of Product for Threads, told us in a test group chat that it’s “on track to become Meta’s next major app” with 400 million monthly active users.” Messaging has been the top requested feature since Threads launched, but it took some time to release it because it “wasn’t a priority in the early days.” Since making DMs available on Threads in July, Meta has added support for photos, videos and GIFs, a messaging requests folder to reduce unwanted messages, the hidden spam folder and a privacy setting that completely switches off message requests from people you don’t follow.
