Everything you need to know about Threads' new communities feature

Threads just introduced a new feature that makes watching live events feel way more connected.

Communities on Threads are "public, casual spaces where you can exchange unique perspectives and join conversations about topics like basketball, TV, and more," the social media site wrote in a blog post on Thursday.

Right now, the company is testing threads globally with the most active interests on Threads, including the NBA, the WNBA, TV Threads, and KPOP Threads. To join a community, simply search for it in the top right corner. If the category is a community, it will allow you to join by clicking "Join" in the top right corner — an easy tell is if there's a three-dot icon on a topic tag. To find your joined communities, click the hamburger menu in the top left of the app and it'll be added to your feeds.

Threads introduces communities Credit: Meta Threads

Each community gets its own custom Like emoji, which are, admittedly, cute. When you like a post on the Book Threads community, for instance, you'll see a stack of books; WNBA Threads is a basketball; AI is a lightbulb; KPop is a hand heart emoji. For now, it looks like you have to join the Threads community in order to see the custom emoji.

Not every interest has a community just yet, but Threads said there are "already over 100 to explore, with more coming soon." Threads said in their blog post that standout community contributors — users who "are among the most active and engaged users on the app and have helped establish communities around the most popular discussion topics" will receive special badges. Plus, the site said it is "working on ranking within communities and the For You feed so that you see the most relevant posts first."

This update shouldn't come as a complete shock. A few days ago, Social Media Today reported that some Threads users were invited to use the feature in beta before it launched, including As @rayofsuunshine and David Rushing, aka @yorush. In a post on Threads, Rushing said he's "really digging Communities on Threads" because "posts in the community feed stay on topic" which "makes it way easier to find relevant posts during live events — like primetime NBA games."

In response to Rushing's post, Adam Mosseri, the "head of Instagram and supporter of Threads," posted that while there is "still a lot of work to do" he's "really excited about communities on Threads."

Personally, I just wish we had communities when Liberty played the Mercury last month.