Threads by Instagram is fighting the good fight to retain its daily users after an initial decline shortly after its launch. The way it does this is to regularly add new features to excite its community, and this week is no exception.
As announced today via official Thread accounts @threads and Instagram boss Adam Mosseri (@mosseri), two new features will be rolling out this week. First, and more importantly, you will now be able to edit a thread up to five minutes after posting it. Second, you will now be able to
start or reply to a thread using your voice.
The ability to edit a thread is a popular request among the app’s users, especially those who have flocked to it looking for an alternative to X (formerly Twitter) and its tendency to lock down its most popular features. useful behind a paywall. Currently, users on X must subscribe to the Premium plan to be able to edit a post. On Threads, the famous “Edit button” will be available for free to all users and will be rolled out starting today.
To edit a message or reply, simply tap or click the “…” menu at the top right. The edit option will only be available for the first five minutes of your post, and it allows both correcting or adding text, as well as adding images.
Similarly,
threads deploys “voice threads,” or how I think most people will refer to them: “voice notes.” To use your voice to start or reply to a thread, simply tap the microphone icon. Then, when the recorder appears, press (or hold) the record button to start. The recordings will also include auto-generated captions that you can edit before finalizing your post.
What is missing ?
However, while these two new features are great, there are some things to consider. While no app updates are required to get them, I noticed that voice notes don’t seem to be available on the web app. This could be due to design or simply because the feature hasn’t been fully rolled out yet.
Additionally, once a post is edited, there appears to be no indication that the post was edited or any edit history to speak of. Hopefully this is in the works, as this lack of transparency could lead to misinformation.
Overall, this is a huge win for Threads and a great incentive for new users to join the platform and existing users to become more active. The team seems to be listening to user feedback and slowly but surely giving them the features they want.
