Threads provides ‘ghost posts’ that disappear after 24 hours

Meta’s X competitor, Threads, is introducing a brand new “disappearing posts” function that may permit the app’s over 400 million month-to-month customers to share their ideas and interact in conversations which are robotically archived after 24 hours.

The choice, dubbed “ghost posts,” launches on Monday for Threads customers worldwide.

Customers will now be capable to create a ghost publish on cell gadgets by toggling on the brand new “ghost” icon on the app’s compose display screen. When the publish is printed, it seems in others’ timelines with a dotted dialog bubble round it to distinguish the publish from different content material.

Different customers on each desktop and cell gadgets can reply to the publish, however these responses are despatched on to the poster’s DMs (direct messages); these replies don’t seem within the timeline.

Beneath the publish, individuals can see if others have appreciated and replied to the ghost publish, which is indicated by smiley-faced icons. However solely posters can see the precise variety of likes and replies, and who engaged.

After 24 hours, the posts disappear from the timeline, however are nonetheless obtainable to the unique poster from the “archived” part, accessed from the principle settings menu.

(Word: If you happen to’ve turned off message requests, individuals you don’t observe gained’t be capable to reply to your ghost posts. If message requests are enabled, any replies from individuals you don’t observe go to your message request inbox as a substitute. You’ll be able to alter these settings from the drop-down menu within the prime proper of your profile.)

Father or mother firm Meta advised TechCrunch the function was designed to encourage extra low-stakes sharing inside the feed.

The addition may additionally give Threads a brand new method to problem Elon Musk’s X, the place customers at the moment should go for third-party, usually paid providers to delete their outdated tweets in the event that they don’t need to do quite a lot of guide labor.

This isn’t the primary time a text-first social community has tried ephemeral posts. Earlier than it was X, Twitter experimented with this type of sharing again in 2020 with Fleets, which appeared as disappearing Tales. Nonetheless, the corporate pulled the function the next yr, citing a scarcity of adoption.

Meta, in the meantime, believes there’s nonetheless potential in disappearing content material — one thing that has labored properly for Tales on Instagram and Fb, for example. On Threads, the corporate says it expects individuals can be inspired to share extra of their unfiltered ideas, have interaction in stay threading, or strive different kinds of experimental content material through ghost posts.

The tech big has been quickly iterating on Threads since its July 2023 launch, rolling out options like customized feeds, DMs, fediverse sharing (which connects Threads to open social networks like Mastodon), and, extra just lately, assist for as much as 10,000 characters by way of textual content attachments, instruments to conceal spoilers, and the launch of interest-based communities.