Threads is adding location sharing to posts

Threads seems to be rolling out a new location tagging feature that allows users to add a location to their posts. Some users have reported seeing the change in Threads’ app, though it doesn’t seem to be available to everyone just yet.

The feature is similar to location tagging on Instagram. When you give Threads access to your location, you’ll see a list of nearby places to tag, though you can also manually search for a place. For example, I saw that a few users already jokingly tagged their posts as “hell.”

According to an in-app disclaimer from Meta, the company plans to use location sharing to better customize Threads by showing “personalized content” about places nearby. The change could help improve Threads’ search functionality, which still often falls short, and make the app slightly more useful for following breaking news and other timely events.

The change could also come in handy in the future when Meta finally flips the switch on advertising in Threads. Mark Zuckerberg has said the company plans to continue growing the service before bringing ads to the platform, but getting users’ consent to sharing locations would provide a crucial bit of information for the company’s ad machine.

Meta didn’t immediately respond to questions about the feature, but the company appears to still be rolling it out. Location sharing appeared for me in the Threads app, but then disappeared about an hour later. It doesn’t seem to be visible at all yet on the web version of Threads.