You have heard this from us before: listening to your audience is important. We even wrote a whole article about how social listening can transform your business and have on multiple occasions reiterated that some of the best content ideas can be hiding in your comment section…
… but how does social listening really look like?
Back to Threads
Just in case you have not noticed, we LOOOOOOOVE THREADS (yes, all those Os are absolutely necessary), and despite Meta being Meta, Threads is kind of a safe haven compared to other social media platforms… and one thing that has made Threads that beautiful place is how, to a degree, you have control over the algorithm.
Yes, the algorithm…
That sneaky thing that everyone likes to blame for the lack of reach and engagement, and that seems to hold the secrets of success on every platform. The algorithm we previously mentioned is not your enemy, and can usually learn from how you interact with certain content.
The algorithm everyone loves to claim they have “cracked” or can control…
…and that is where we connect to the “Dear Algo” trend.
The “Dear Algo” Posts
If you’ve spent more than five minutes scrolling through Threads (guilty 🙋🏼♀️), chances are you’ve seen people posting stuff like:
“Dear Algo, please connect me with other female-owned small businesses.”
“Dear Algo, connect me to people who love mythology and write poetry.”
“Dear Algo, show us musicians working at their craft.”
It is almost like “praying to the algorithm gods” to grant you their blessings and luck… and honestly, it was a fun way of knowing what some users were interested in: keywords here and there, pleas to people with similar taste, interest, or ways of thinking to interact and connect. To a degree, it did work, but it was nothing more than a silly little Threads trend… until it wasn’t.
Back in December, Threads decided to do something more out of the “Dear Algo” Trend:
Threads saw the posts as something more than a silly trend: there are people literally defining their audience out loud… and Threads REALLY listened.
What the Trend Reveals
When someone writes a “Dear Algo” post, they are unintentionally giving you market research for free. They are telling you who they want to reach, what problem they have (or solve), what kind of message resonates with them, and what they believe the platform should understand about their content.
If you are paying attention, you can start noticing patterns. That is data. And it is one of the most valuable forms of data, as it is not the cold, spreadsheet-type data but the kind that comes from humans. Social listening is about observing conversations, frustrations, jokes, recurring themes, and even trends like “Dear Algo.”
The “Dear Algo” Trend as Feature
After some testing, Threads announced 6 days ago (on February 11th, 2026, just in case you are reading this some other day) that the “Dear Algo” was now “official” and would roll out in certain markets.
What started as a playful trend became a case study in real-time social listening, not just creators listening to their audience, but the platform listening to its users and giving them an easier way to control their feeds with just a single step: Tag “Dear Algo” at the beginning of your post and asking for what you want (or don’t want) to see.
Once posted, Threads will adjust your feed for 3 days, pinging you when your feed’s updated, and labeling recommendations influenced by your request. You can also repost someone else’s Dear Algo request to adjust your feed in the same way, and you could also report Dear Algo posts that go against the Community Standards, just like any other post on Threads.
So, What Does This Mean for You?
Data is like gold: valuable, and the “Dear Algo” offers insights for brands, creators, and casual users alike. It officially validates that the algorithm isn’t just a mysterious force; it’s a tool designed to respond to clear, intentional input. But more importantly, it highlights two major takeaways for anyone trying to build a community or a business online:
1. The Power of Explicit Intent
Your audience is often willing to tell you what they want if you give them the space and the right prompt. The “Dear Algo” trend worked because it felt human. It wasn’t a survey or a feedback form; it was a public declaration of interest. As you plan your content strategy, consider how you can encourage your audience to be this explicit. Ask them directly what they want to see more of. You might be surprised by the clarity of their answers.
2. The Platform as a Participant in Community Building
This move by Threads is a significant shift in how a social platform interacts with its user base. Instead of just observing behavior, they are actively giving users a tool to shape their own experience. They turned a user-generated trend into a product feature. This level of responsiveness builds trust and loyalty. It makes users feel heard, which is a rare commodity in the world of Big Tech.
It also reinforces the idea that algorithms don’t have to be the enemy. When users feel they have some control, the relationship with the platform changes. It becomes less of a broadcast medium and more of a community-managed space. The “report” function being available for these posts also shows a commitment to keeping that community safe, ensuring that this new power isn’t abused to amplify hate speech or spam.
If a platform is willing to adjust based on what users repeatedly express, imagine what you could adjust inside your own brand by paying attention to those same patterns.
The “Dear Algo:” An Effect of Listening
The journey of the “Dear Algo” trend from an inside joke to an official platform feature is the perfect example of what we keep telling you about social listening: it started with people simply talking to each other. They were being vulnerable, specific, and human. Someone at Threads (maybe multiple someones, who knows) was watching and, most importantly, paying attention: they saw a pattern of need.
They saw that people were hungry for connection beyond the superficial. They wanted to find their niche, their people, their tribe. And they saw that the users had come up with a creative, almost poetic way to ask for it.
This is social listening at its most potent. Understanding your audience’s culture, noticing the silly little things, hashtags, or a recurring phrase that reveals a deeper, unmet desire. Simply noticing your audience.
