Introducing Threads in Beta!

Trying to keep track of several conversations in one timeline at once can often feel (and look) like long division! Cross-talk, replies, and reactions make your timeline feel disjointed and messy. It’s less than ideal, especially if you use Element to enhance your productivity.

Threads help you separate conversations from the main timeline. Starting a new Thread opens the thread view where you can continue your conversations without interruption from other messages or topics pinging through in the timeline.

This new feature is in Beta and is available on all platforms. We’d love for you to turn it on and check it out!

Please note; While this feature is available on all platforms, your homeserver may not yet support threads. If this is the case you might not see the Threads Beta in Labs, if you do, you’ll see a warning.

How to use Threads

To start a new thread, hover over or tap the message that you would like to discuss further and select “Reply in thread”.

Once selected, the thread panel will open where you can type your message and press send!

To return to this thread later you can select the thread summary from the timeline, or select it from the thread list - accessed by hitting the thread icon in the top-right.

It really is that simple! :)

What is Beta?

When we release a feature in Beta it means that we’re ready to share it with our audience and gather feedback. If you agree to enter into the Beta, you’re helping us to find bugs or make improvements before we launch the feature fully, to all users.

For Threads, we’re still working on improving the stability and performance, and we want to improve notifications and badges for greater clarity to your messages.

What’s next for Threads?

There’s a couple of things remaining before Threads can exit beta:

• In our Beta experience of Threads your notifications and badge counts may not be totally accurate. While we can assure you that you won’t miss any messages, we can’t guarantee that the number of unreads is true.
• Furthermore, notification badges and counts won't sync across platforms. If you’re using both Web and Mobile for example you’ll see notification counts for threaded messages in both places.
• Some homeservers don’t yet support Threads functionality; we will continue to work on improving our messaging and support for those impacted.

So that’s it! You can find the Beta in Settings > Labs. Turn it on, give it a go, and let us know what you think! We hope you enjoy it as much as we do <3

For more info on the Threads Beta, check out our FAQ page here.