Threads Expands Live Chats With New Host Tools

Meta is scaling its real-time conversation strategy by rolling out significant upgrades to the Threads Live Chats feature. The company confirmed on Tuesday that it is expanding access to the tool while introducing functionality designed to streamline moderation and cross-language communication.

The update brings several functional improvements aimed at empowering creators and moderators:

• Co-hosting: Live Chat initiators can now invite up to three co-hosts, functioning like a guest speaker or a moderator to help manage high-volume discussions.
• Moderation Control: Hosts now have the authority to delete messages for all participants, alongside new visual enhancements that make host messages stand out within the chat interface.
• Language Accessibility: New built-in translation support aims to break down language barriers, allowing users globally to participate in conversations more seamlessly.

Access to start these Live Chats is also widening. Meta is granting this capability to “Community Champions”—a designation for power users who maintain high follower counts and consistently drive active, regular discussions within their specific communities.

Since the initial rollout of Live Chats, Meta reports that the feature has gained traction, with hundreds of sessions occurring daily and attracting thousands of participants. The platform allows up to 150 active participants to send messages, photos, videos, and links. Once a room hits that capacity, additional users can still join as spectators to view the conversation, use emoji reactions, and vote in polls.

This push toward real-time engagement marks a strategic evolution for Threads. While the platform initially faced criticism for lacking foundational features like robust search and chronological feeds compared to X, it has steadily introduced tools to differentiate itself. According to the company, these latest changes were developed directly in response to creator feedback.

Looking ahead, Meta teased that further updates are in development, including the highly requested addition of pinned messages and official desktop support. These improvements follow a period of growth for the platform, which recently hit 500 million monthly active users nearly three years after its debut.