Threads Expands Live Chats With Translation, Co-Hosts and New Moderator Tools

Meta’s Threads is rolling out several new features for its recently introduced Live Chats functionality while also expanding access to a broader group of users, the company announced on Tuesday. The latest updates include translation support, additional moderation tools for hosts, and several new conversation management capabilities.

With the addition of built-in translations, Live Chats become more accessible to participants from different regions and language backgrounds. Threads is also extending the ability to create Live Chats to all “Community Champions,” a designation the company gives to users who have built strong followings within their communities, regularly contribute content, and consistently encourage active discussions.

Hosts can now invite up to three co-hosts to join a Live Chat, making it easier to manage ongoing conversations. According to Threads, this feature functions much like inviting guest speakers onto a programme or bringing in additional moderators to help oversee discussions. Hostscan can also remove messages for all participants in the chat, while the platform is currently testing a feature that highlights host messages more prominently to improve visibility during active conversations.

When Threads first launched, it struggled to compete with X as a destination for real-time discussions because it lacked several core features, including comprehensive search, hashtag support, and a chronological timeline. Since then, Meta has introduced those capabilities and is now further distinguishing Threads through Live Chats, a real-time engagement feature that is not currently available on X.

The primary objective behind Live Chats is to make Threads feel more immediate, interactive, and relevant for users participating in live discussions. Since the feature became available, the company says hundreds of Live Chats have been hosted almost every day, attracting thousands of participants. According to Threads, many of the enhancements announced today were introduced in response to direct feedback and requests from creators using the platform.

Within Live Chats, users can share text messages, photos, videos, links, and emoji reactions. Up to 150 participants can actively contribute messages during a session. Once that participant limit is reached, additional users can continue watching the discussion, reacting to messages, and participating in polls in spectator mode.

Threads also revealed that desktop support for Live Chats will be arriving soon. In addition, the company confirmed that pinned messages are currently in development, another feature that creators have consistently requested since the launch of Live Chats.

Earlier this month, Threads surpassed 500 million monthly active users, reaching the milestone less than three years after launching as Meta’s competitor to X. Over the past year, the platform has continued expanding its feature set with additions such as direct messaging, ghost posts, desktop messaging, and several other updates that have contributed to its continued user growth.