Meta has a fascinating habit of saying “absolutely not” and then quietly doing the thing anyway. Exhibit A: direct messages on Threads.
When Threads launched, Meta was very clear. No DMs. If you wanted to message someone, you were politely nudged back to Instagram like a child being redirected to the correct playroom. Messaging, we were told, was not the point of Threads.
Fast forward a hot minute and suddenly Threads has DMs. Then group chats. Then more messaging features. And now, because subtlety has left the building, Meta is experimenting with games inside DMs.
Because nothing says “serious Twitter alternative” like shooting virtual basketballs in your inbox.
According to app researcher Alessandro Paluzzi, Threads is currently working on a simple basketball shooting game that lives directly inside your chat window. Think swipe controls, quick challenges, and something you can casually send to a friend when the conversation dries up.
The bigger idea here is not basketball. It is engagement.
Meta wants you chatting more. Staying longer. Opening the app again tomorrow. And if a tiny game tucked into DMs helps with that, well, why wouldn’t they try it?
We have already seen this gimmick elsewhere. LinkedIn of all places rolled out puzzle games and somehow turned corporate networking into a daily Wordle ritual. Engagement went up. Time spent increased. People came back.
So yes, this could work.
It also feels a little like adding arcade machines to a library and then bragging about foot traffic.
Let’s be honest about what this actually does.
In-stream games may pad engagement numbers. They increase session length. They amp up return visits. And they make graphs look very healthy in quarterly reports.
That does not automatically mean people are using Threads more for conversation, ideas, or community. It just means they are flicking basketballs into a hoop while waiting for someone to reply.
Is that bad? Not necessarily. But it is worth calling it what it is.
Meta is very good at turning “fun experiments” into metrics-friendly features. If the games ship publicly and people use them, expect a lot of enthusiasm about “increased interaction across the platform.”
Technically true. Spiritually debatable.
Meta has confirmed to TechCrunch that it is experimenting with DM games, though they are not in public testing yet. At the same time, the company is also playing with live chats for Threads communities.
Basically, messaging is no longer a stopover. It is becoming core to Threads. And that is where things get interesting.
Because for a long time, Meta avoided expanding Threads DMs for reasons that had nothing to do with user experience.
For years, Meta was under serious pressure from the FTC over its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp. Regulators argued that Meta had reduced competition in digital advertising, and there was a real possibility of being forced to spin off parts of the company.
Meta’s response was… creative.
The plan was to merge messaging across WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger into one giant, intertwined inbox. On paper, this sounded convenient. In practice, it also made separating any single app legally and technically painful.
That effort went quiet in 2024.
Then in November, Meta won its case against the FTC. Threat neutralized. Pressure reduced. Suddenly, Threads could have its own DMs without worrying about how they fit into a massive cross-app messaging Frankenstein.
And wouldn’t you know it, experimentation picked right back up.
Now that Threads does not have to worry about compatibility with every other Meta messaging platform, the team can actually play.
Games. Live chats. Unique DM features that do not need to sync with WhatsApp or Messenger. This is Threads getting its own personality instead of borrowing Instagram’s leftovers.
Whether DM games make it to production is still up in the air. But the direction is clear.
Threads is no longer just a text feed. It wants to be a place where people hang out. Even if that means casually dunking on each other in DMs.
And honestly? That might be the most Threads thing yet.
