• by Colin Kirkland , Yesterday

Meta’s Threads app, a competitor to X, has a new feature called “Dear Algo,” which invites users to personalize their main feed by typing in what types of content they want to see more or less of.

According to Meta’s announcement, users can type “Dear Algo” into a public Threads post, followed by what they want to see. For example, if they want to see more content about popular crime podcasts, they can type “Dear algo, show me more posts about crime podcasts.”

After posting their request, users will receive a notification explaining that their feed will be updated for the next three days based on their Dear Algo post.

“You can also repost someone else’s Dear Algo request to apply their content preferences to your own feed,” the announcement adds.

Because the feature requires a public post, personal content feed requests are designed to be broadcast to other users, with Meta hoping Dear Algo influences enhanced discovery across its user base.

“We want Dear Algo to make Threads feel more personal – whether you’re following trending topics or exploring niche interests,” the announcement explains.

As Threads gains more users, Dear Algo – which is currently available in the U.S., New Zealand, Australia, and the UK, with the tech giant planning on expanding it to more countries soon – is an attempt by Meta to provide its users with a more nuanced alternative to X’s “Not Interested” content option.

Over the past year, Meta has worked on modifying its feed experiences across its family of apps, valuing both short-form video and personalization. In October, Meta began testing a video-first home tab on Instagram and then announced a Facebook feed redesign aimed at promoting popular features among Gen Z to reflect current user engagement trends.

Additionally, in December, Meta made it possible for Instagram users in the U.S. to control which Reels are algorithmically delivered to them via a new “Your Algorithm” control option.