Therr Launches Algorithm Choice: Users Can Now Pick How Their Feed Works
Two feeds, one switch, and a roadmap toward plug-and-play algorithms
This article was drafted with AI assistance and reviewed and edited by the Therr team before publication.
Therr, Inc. today announced Algorithm Choice, a feature that lets every Therr user decide which algorithm ranks the content they see. The setting is live now for all users on iOS and Android, and it ships with two options: Pulse and Focus.
Most social platforms treat feed ranking as something that happens to you. Therr is treating it as a setting you own.
Pulse and Focus
Pulse surfaces what is happening right now. The most active and most recent posts near you lead the feed, so a packed patio, a pop-up market, or a last-minute show is visible while it still matters. Pulse is built for discovery and for the hours when you want to find something to do.
Focus shows only what you chose. It is a quieter feed, limited to the interests, places, and groups you have actively opted into. Nothing is injected to keep you scrolling. When you have seen what you follow, the feed is done.
Users can switch between the two at any time, as often as they like, and the choice takes effect immediately.
Why this matters now
Algorithmic control has moved from a niche complaint to a live policy question. The European Union's Digital Services Act requires very large platforms to offer a non-personalized feed option, and an October 2025 Dutch court ruling found that Meta had to make those non-algorithmic timelines genuinely accessible rather than buried. In the United States, the Missouri Attorney General filed a first-of-its-kind rule in 2025 that would require large social platforms to let users select a third-party content moderator, with no pre-selected default.
Meanwhile, the ranking systems themselves have become the story. Users increasingly describe their feeds as adversarial — optimized for time spent rather than for anything they actually wanted. Therr has written about the downstream effects of that design, from what digital wellness actually looks like to state-level warning label proposals and the erosion of trust as AI-generated content floods timelines.
"People are not asking for a better algorithm. They are asking for the steering wheel," said Zack Anselm, Founder of Therr. "Regulators are arriving at the same conclusion from a different direction. We would rather build for that world now than be dragged into it later."
Built on a local foundation
Algorithm Choice sits on top of what already makes Therr different. Therr's feed is driven by proximity and genuine interest rather than follower counts or ad spend, so both Pulse and Focus rank content that is actually near you. The result is that switching algorithms changes the pace and breadth of your feed without pulling you out of your own neighborhood.
For local businesses and community organizers, the change is additive. A post that is time-sensitive reaches people through Pulse. A post that matters to a specific community reaches them through Focus. Neither path requires paying to be seen.
What comes next
Two options is a starting point, not a destination. Therr's roadmap treats feed ranking as a pluggable layer — an interface that community organizers, local publishers, and independent developers could eventually build against, the way Bluesky's custom feeds let anyone publish a ranking service that others can subscribe to.
"The endgame is plug and play," Anselm said. "A campus group should be able to ship a feed for its campus. A neighborhood association should be able to ship one for its blocks. Our job is to run the infrastructure and then get out of the way."
Therr has not announced a date for opening the interface to third parties. Additional first-party options are planned before that step.
For a deeper look at why open interfaces matter more than a toggle inside someone else's app, read our companion analysis: Algorithm Choice and Open APIs: Why 2026 Is the Year to Stop Renting Your Audience.
Algorithm Choice is available today in Settings on the latest version of the Therr app. Learn more about how Therr's feed works on our Why Therr page.
About Therr, Inc.
Therr is a local-first social platform that connects people to the places, events, and communities around them. Content on Therr is tied to real locations and surfaced by proximity and genuine interest rather than vanity metrics. Users can opt in to cash rewards and discounts at participating local businesses, and retain control over their data and content visibility. Therr is available on iOS and Android.