Meta Adds New Live Chat Feature to Threads for NBA Playoffs, Major Events

Engagement is a big deal in the world of social media. On Wednesday, Meta announced Live Chats, a new feature for the Instagram-supported social app Threads. It adds a real-time conversation component, letting people connect during high-interest cultural events, such as playoff or championship games, or even the drop of a highly anticipated album.

Live Chats won’t be limited to sports, but the feature is launching during the NBA Playoffs within the NBAThreads Community, and an assortment of personalities — Malika Andrews, Rachel Nichols, Trysta Krick, David Rushing and Lexis Mickens — will host Live Chats as the games unfold. 

The group chat experience includes countdowns, polls, live scores and other real-time options designed to keep the conversation active.

How to find Live Chats on Threads

Live Chats about the games will appear at the top of the NBAThreads Community, and they can also appear in your main feed on Threads if you follow a personality who has posted the link. A red circle will appear on a Live Chat host’s profile photo when they are live. More Community feeds will have the Live Chats feature in the coming months.

After you’ve entered the chat, you’ll be able to send and receive messages, attach photos, videos and links, and send reaction emoji. Anyone can join a chat, but it can reach capacity and stop accepting new users.

“Up to 150 participants can join in the Live Chat conversation (unless the host decides to make it invite only), but anyone can watch,” a Meta spokesperson told CNET. Once a Live Chat ends, it’ll no longer be pinned in the community feed, but will remain visible through previously shared posts.

How to start a Live Chat on Threads

Live Chats are open and public, but Meta allows only a select number of creators and personalities to host them on Threads. This includes Community Champions, who are active, influential users within a Threads community who stay engaged with others and keep conversations alive. 

To schedule a Live Chat, a qualified host will tap the three-dot menu in the top-right corner and select “Schedule a Live Chat.” You can give the chat a name, select a time frame for it to be live and then invite other Threads users to join or post the link to your feed and Instagram Story to get the word out.

A bigger Live Chats experience is coming

Once Meta refines the feature, more Live Chat attributes will be rolling out in the near future, including co-hosting, play-by-play commentary content, lock screen widgets and a share option that’ll let you quote chat messages directly in your Threads feed.