X, formerly Twitter, turned TweetDeck into X Pro and pushed it behind a paywall. But there is a new column-based social media tool in the town, and it’s from Instagram Threads.
Mark Zuckerberg announced today that the social network is testing pinned columns on the web. While the Meta CEO didn’t mention what you can pin on the interface with this tool, the screenshot he posted suggests that you can at least pin topics.
Meta said currently you can pin your favorite searches, accounts, saved posts, and notifications. You can also enable auto-refresh for this column for faster updates. The company said this feature is available to just a small number of people across the world.
This move could also mean that the Threads API could provide third-party developers with more flexibility in presenting content from the social network in a different way. However, until now, Meta hasn’t talked about letting developers build independent Threads clients through its API.
Some developers have built TweetDeck-like experiences for social networks such as Bluesky and Mastodon. Mastodon also has its own built-in TweetDeck-style interface on the web. But Zuckerberg’s announcement is the first move in a column-based tool direction for Threads.
The more important question is: are they naming it ThreadsDeck?
