The news: Meta’s Threads is adding direct messaging (DM) and a “highlight” feature to show trending topics related to a user’s feed.

DMs began rolling out Tuesday in “most markets,” excluding Australia, Japan, the EU, and the UK, per TechCrunch. The chats won’t be encrypted like XChat or WhatsApp.

Why it matters: Threads is trying to get out from under Instagram’s shadow—Instagram accounts are required for signup, psychologically linking the two for many consumers. But Threads’ daily active users (DAUs) aren’t interacting with the same crowd on Instagram, and many have less than a 50% overlap in connections between the two.

More ways Meta is boosting Threads:

• Meta is testing Threads logins through Facebook and Threads-only accounts. The latter would put it more in line with X.
• In May, Meta expanded its Marketing API to Threads so advertisers could create and manage ads via third-party platforms.