Meta takes another swing at X with new Threads group chats

Meta has officially announced that group chats are now rolling out on Threads, its text-based social media app. This is a pretty straightforward addition, allowing you to start a private conversation with up to 50 people who follow you. You can give your group chat a custom name, and Meta says the ability to invite people with a link is coming soon.This update is part of a broader push to improve the messaging experience within the app, which just got direct messaging capabilities back in July, two years after its initial launch. Alongside the group chat feature, Threads is also expanding its full messaging service to users in the European Union, giving them access to the same individual and group chats, privacy settings, and media support that others have had.

Why this is a big deal

Threads is obviously playing catch-up here. Its main competitor, X (formerly Twitter), has had group DMs for years, and its capacity is far larger, allowing up to 256 people in a single chat. For Threads to be a true alternative, it needs to have these fundamental features. Adding group DMs is less of an innovation and more of a box-ticking exercise to stop users from needing to switch apps for a group conversation.However, this feature is for the growing number of people who are genuinely building communities on Threads. It makes the platform stickier, encouraging users to not only post publicly but also to build more private, tighter-knit groups. It’s a logical step in making Threads a more self-contained and fully-featured social network rather than just an extension of Instagram.

Is it enough to matter?

While the addition of group chats is welcome, it’s not exactly a game-changer. It’s a basic feature that should have been there much sooner. For me, it’s another sign that Meta is serious about slowly and methodically building Threads into a viable competitor to X, even if it feels like they’re still working on the basics over a year after launch.Would I use it? If I had a group of friends who were all active on Threads, maybe. But the 50-person limit feels a bit small compared to what other platforms offer. Still, it’s a necessary feature. It shows that Meta is listening and willing to invest in making the platform more functional. It’s not flashy, but it’s progress, and for a platform still trying to find its footing, any progress is good progress.

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