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Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, announced that social media platform Threads will begin showing live sports scores, starting with NBA basketball games. Zuckerberg underlined that following this innovation, scores from more leagues will be added in the near future. This new feature of Threads aims to attract the attention of sports enthusiasts by offering users quick and easy access to live match scores.
How does the live score feature work? During any match, you can view the current score by searching for the relevant teams. When the match ends, making a call will bring up the final score. You can also call ahead to find out when the match will start. The feature offers similar functionality to how social media platform X started showing live sports scores in 2017, when it was then known as Twitter.
Live scores and community interaction on Threads
Each score is presented with the logos of both teams. Tapping these logos directs users to a conversation about that team. Threads and Instagram recently decided to stop recommending political content, so highlighting sports is seen as a convenient way to capture the “real-time” vibe of a vibrant and popular social network.
Instagram head Adam Mosseri has been trying to woo NBA basketball fans for months, calling the community of basketball fans on Threads “a great example of what they hope to see in the app.” This makes sense, because NBA discussions are making a big impact on the X platform. This community, still called NBA Twitter in sports media, provides regular coverage and conversations about the professional basketball league. It looks like Meta is hoping to attract some of that influence.
Apple also recently announced its own sports-related initiative. A dedicated iPhone app offers real-time statistics for many major leagues, including the NBA, and shows live score data on the lock screen during a match.
Threads are popping up everywhere this week. The platform introduced a new algorithm tuning feature that works by swiping left and right on posts, and announced a beta test that allows users to share content to Mastodon and other fediverse services. The live scores feature is also in the testing phase.