Threads adds ‘ghost posts’ that disappear after 24 hours

Meta’s X competitor, Threads, is introducing a caller “disappearing posts” diagnostic that volition let the app’s implicit 400 cardinal monthly users to stock their thoughts and prosecute successful conversations that are automatically archived aft 24 hours.

The option, dubbed “ghost posts,” launches connected Monday for Threads users worldwide.

Users volition present beryllium capable to make a shade station connected mobile devices by toggling connected the caller “ghost” icon connected the app’s constitute screen. When the station is published, it appears successful others’ timelines with a dotted speech bubble astir it to differentiate the station from different content.

Other users connected some desktop and mobile devices tin reply to the post, but these responses are sent straight to the poster’s DMs (direct messages); these replies don’t look successful the timeline.

Underneath the post, radical tin spot if others person liked and replied to the shade post, which is indicated by smiley-faced icons. But lone posters tin spot the existent fig of likes and replies, and who engaged.

After 24 hours, the posts vanish from the timeline, but are inactive disposable to the archetypal poster from the “archived” section, accessed from the main settings menu.

Image Credits:Meta/Instagram Threads / Getty Images

(Note: If you’ve turned disconnected connection requests, radical you don’t travel won’t beryllium capable to reply to your shade posts. If connection requests are enabled, immoderate replies from radical you don’t travel spell to your connection petition inbox instead. You tin set these settings from the drop-down paper successful the apical close of your profile.)

Parent institution Meta told TechCrunch the diagnostic was designed to promote much low-stakes sharing wrong the feed.

The summation could besides springiness Threads a caller mode to situation Elon Musk’s X, wherever users contiguous person to opt for third-party, often paid services to delete their aged tweets if they don’t privation to bash a batch of manual labor.

This is not the archetypal clip a text-first societal web has tried ephemeral posts. Before it was X, Twitter experimented with this signifier of sharing backmost successful 2020 with Fleets, which appeared arsenic disappearing Stories. However, the institution pulled the diagnostic the pursuing year, citing a deficiency of adoption.

Meta, meanwhile, believes there’s inactive imaginable successful disappearing contented — thing that has worked good for Stories connected Instagram and Facebook, for instance. On Threads, the institution says it expects radical volition beryllium encouraged to stock much of their unfiltered thoughts, prosecute successful unrecorded threading, oregon effort different sorts of experimental contented via shade posts.

The tech elephantine has been rapidly iterating connected Threads since its July 2023 launch, rolling retired features similar custom feeds, DMs, fediverse sharing (which connects Threads to unfastened societal networks similar Mastodon), and, much recently, support for up to 10,000 characters done substance attachments, tools to hide spoilers, and the launch of interest-based communities.