Threads is developing in-message games

Threads is exploring games in chats, beginning with a basketball game. A spokesperson for Meta confirmed to TechCrunch that the company is internally prototyping the game and that it’s not available to the public.

The game was first spotted by reverse engineer Alessandro Paluzzi, who often finds unreleased features while they’re still under development. Paluzzi shared a screenshot of the basketball game, which appears to let users virtually shoot hoops by swiping their finger. The idea behind the game is likely to allow friends to compete to see who can score the most baskets, similar to other mobile basketball games.

Launching in-message games would give Threads an edge over competitors like X and Bluesky, which don’t offer built-in games. It could also even help Threads compete with Apple’s Messages, which supports games via third-party apps like GamePigeon.

As with any internal prototype, it’s unknown when or if Meta plans to officially roll out games in Threads messages.

It’s also worth noting this isn’t the first time Meta has explored in-message gaming, as Instagram launched a hidden emoji game in DMs last year. The goal of the game is to use your finger to move the paddle at the bottom of the screen to keep an emoji of your choice afloat and continuously bouncing. If you let the emoji fall, you lose. The idea is to compete with the other person in the chat to achieve the highest score.

The internal prototype comes as Meta continues to build out Threads with new features to take on its competitors. For example, the platform recently expanded its Communities feature with more topics, likely aiming to draw users away from Reddit and X. Plus, it added a “disappearing posts” feature that lets users share their thoughts and engage in conversations that are automatically archived after 24 hours.

While Threads boasts 400 million monthly users, it still has quite a way to go to catch up with X in the U.S., according to data from Pew Research Center’s report released a few weeks ago. The report says 21% of U.S. adults said they have used X, compared with only 8% who have used Threads, and 4% who have used Bluesky.