Threads is Testing Temporary Posts in Its Latest Experiment

For those accustomed to removing their social media content with third-party services, or for content that has a brief relevance, ephemeral posts on social platforms can be quite beneficial. Earlier in the month, Threads indicated it was exploring the concept of temporary posts as an internal experiment. Now, the organization has informed TechCrunch it’s in the phase of testing 24-hour vanishable posts with a select group of its users.

Although no official statement was released, a company representative mentioned that this feature introduces a fresh, informal way to share content on Threads. Furthermore, details about whether this test is confined to certain areas or who has the capability to use such posting features were not disclosed.

Alessandro Paluzzi, an expert in app reverse engineering, shared a fleeting post last Friday. Interacting with the respond button reveals remaining time before the post is automatically removed. Threads additionally places a notice above these posts, hinting that the entire conversation, along with all replies, will be erased once the countdown concludes. The notice leaves out details on quoted replies, however, it was noted that these too carry a countdown akin to the initial post and will vanish upon expiry.

In June, Paluzzi was the first to hint at Threads experimenting with temporary postings, showing a screenshot with a 24-hour option adjacent to the Post button for creating a disappearing thread. Notable technologist Christ Messina also uncovered signs of such posts in the iOS app’s code recently. Messina observed that ephemeral posts would not be distributed across the fediverse, as Threads would not manage to remove them from other servers powered by ActivityPub. Threads expanded its interoperability with the fediverse in June.

Creators looking to occasionally share content that diverges from their usual branding or topic, as well as individuals aiming to provide commentary on temporal events, might find posts that disappear after 24 hours especially useful.

Before the Elon Musk era, Twitter launched a feature similar to Instagram Stories called Fleets in 2020 for ephemeral posting, but discontinued it in 2021 due to insufficient engagement.

Should Threads broadly introduce ephemeral posting, it might become one of the few social platforms, alongside competitors like X, Bluesky, and Mastodon, to offer this type of content sharing.