Meta is testing a new Threads feature that lets you archive your public posts, rendering them invisible to anyone on the platform.
So far, the feature is only available to a small number of users. If the test proves successful, however, it’s a safe bet that Meta will roll out post archiving to the whole Threads community.
“We’re starting to test the option to archive posts with a small number of people,” Instagram head Adam Mosseri said in a Threads post on Wednesday. “You can do this manually, for individual posts, or choose to automatically archive all posts after a certain period of time. If you want to make your post public again, you can always unarchive it whenever you’d like.”
Also: How to join and use Meta’s Threads
Mosseri said that when he conducted a poll asking users about post archiving, the overall feedback was to not let users archive their posts automatically, which is why Threads is testing it out as an option first.
Mosseri shared a pair of screenshots showing that when you click the ellipsis icon next to one of your posts, the usual popup menu with options to pin the post to your profile, save it, determine who can reply to it, and delete it, may soon show a new “Archive now” option to hide the post. Mosseri explained you could also opt to automatically archive all your posts after a certain number of days.
Instagram has long offered an archive option, so it seems like a natural step to offer one on Threads, too. You may want to archive a post after sharing a comment that you now regret or because it contains information you want to change or double-check. Instead of deleting the post, archiving gives you a chance to hide it while you review.
Not everyone is keen on the new feature. Although some commenters to Mosseri’s post liked the idea, others questioned the point and cited other improvements they’d rather see on the platform. A few also asked what happens if a post is shared via the Fediverse or linked elsewhere and then archived. These are good questions that Threads will need to address.
Also: 10 Threads features you should try in Meta’s Twitter alternative
Threads’ regular feature additions and tests seem to be working, as evidenced by the social network’s user growth.
In a call on Wednesday to discuss Meta’s Q1 2024 earnings, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Threads now has over 150 million monthly active users. This is up from the over 130 million that Meta reported in Q4 2023. At the time, Zuckerberg said that Threads had more people actively using it than it did during the peak of its initial launch.
Launched in July 2023, Threads quickly broke the record as the most downloaded app ever, snagging more than 100 million users in less than a week. After a peak of 49.3 million daily active users on July 7, however, the numbers plummeted by 79% to 10.3 million as of August 7, based on data from web analytics firm Similarweb.
In the months that followed, however, Meta made an effort to add and improve key features, kicking off full website access, a Following feed, keyword searching, and hashtags. On the earnings call, Zuckerberg said that Threads “continues to generally be on the trajectory I hoped to see.” The CEO also boasted that Taylor Swift is now on Threads, a big deal in his house and a development that his daughters would want him to mention.
Threads this week even surpassed its rival X (formerly Twitter) in certain metrics, according to data from Apptopia as reported by Business Insider (subscription required). In April 2024 so far, Threads has seen 28 million daily active users in the US on average, while X has averaged 22 million daily active users, or 21% fewer.
“Threads DAUs (daily active users) in the US passed X in December 2023 and it has not looked back,” Thomas Grant, Apptopia’s VP of research, told Business Insider.
