The Morning After: Thread’s latest feature is stealing Bluesky’s starter packs idea
According to reporting by TechCrunch and others, Threads is tapping into one of Bluesky’s best new features: starter packs of people to follow. Chris Messina, who invented the hashtag (!), posted a screenshot of the tool to the social media app. You can see an early version of the tool by pasting “installedbarcelona://recommended_follow_lists” into Safari on iOS if you have the latest Threads app.
The version likely coming to Threads should work like Bluesky’s version. The lists of users are “handpicked by people on Threads” and can be about pretty much anything.
(Engadget has its own starter pack with many of its writers and editors — follow along!)
Threads has pulled in several Bluesky features this year. The platform recently rolled out custom feeds and the ability to change the default feed to people you follow.
— Mat Smith
Get this delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!
The biggest tech stories you missed
Steam’s Autumn Sale has deep discounts on Steam Decks and select games
Shuhei Yoshida is leaving PlayStation in January after three decades
Bluesky has a verification problem
The company is trying to verify more accounts, but its approach is flawed.
Bluesky has its own problems. As the upstart social media service surges, the platform is facing some growing pains, like a wave of scammers and impersonators. Unlike many of its rivals, which offer checkmarks and official badges to government officials, celebrities and other high-profile accounts, Bluesky has a more hands-off approach to verification. The company encourages users to have a custom domain name as their handle to “self-verify.” Engadget currently has the Bluesky handle engadget.bsky.social. But if we wanted to “verify” our account, we could change it to Engadget.com. It’s more complicated than just switching your handle, demanding a string of text to the DNS record associated with the domain. It’s all manual and… complicated.
Investigators say Chinese ship deliberately dragged anchor to cut undersea cables
Russian intelligence is suspected to be behind the operation.
European investigators believe a Chinese-owned commercial ship deliberately dragged its anchor to sabotage the two undersea telecommunications cables cut in the Baltic Sea earlier this month. However, Western law enforcement and intelligence officials don’t believe the Chinese government was involved — the probe is focusing on whether Russian intelligence persuaded the vessel’s captain to drop anchor.
Casetify's latest AirPods case is a giant Gundam head
If your giant robot tastes are a little more retro than Evangelion.
Sure, there are cases and lanyards and MagSafe chargers, but let’s be real: It’s all about this giant pointy Gundam head case for AirPods.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-121931628.html?src=rss
According to reporting by TechCrunch and others, Threads is tapping into one of Bluesky’s best new features: starter packs of people to follow. Chris Messina, who invented the hashtag (!), posted a screenshot of the tool to the social media app. You can see an early version of the tool…
Recent Posts
- How to watch France vs Ivory Coast: FREE streams, TV channels for World Cup 2026 warm-up
- Belkin’s new Joy-Con grips also boost the Switch 2’s battery life
- How to watch Spain vs Iraq: Free Streams & TV Channels for World Cup 2026 warm-up match
- TSMC struggles to keep up with AI demand: ‘We can only support so much’
- We’re giving away a Prime Day grab bag loaded with over $800 of free tech
Archives
- June 2026
- May 2026
- April 2026
- March 2026
- February 2026
- January 2026
- December 2025
- November 2025
- October 2025
- September 2025
- August 2025
- July 2025
- June 2025
- May 2025
- April 2025
- March 2025
- February 2025
- January 2025
- December 2024
- November 2024
- October 2024
- September 2024
- August 2024
- July 2024
- June 2024
- May 2024
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023