Highlights
- Threads now supports temporary posts that vanish after a day, encouraging casual, low-pressure sharing.
- Replies to ghost posts go directly to DMs, not the public feed.
- Meta hopes ghost posts will inspire spontaneous content and live conversations, building on Threads’ growing feature set.
Caption – (Photo by Azamat E on Unsplash)
Meta’s Threads is adding a new feature called “ghost posts,” which lets users share temporary posts that automatically disappear after 24 hours. The feature is designed to encourage more spontaneous and low-pressure interactions. Here’s more on the new feature.
Threads Ghost Post Feature
Meta announced the new feature in a blog post titled “Introducing Disappearing Posts on Threads.” As clearly indicated in the blog post title, the new ghost posts feature allows users to share content that’s visible for only one day before being archived.
Unlike regular posts, replies to ghost posts are handled differently. When other users on either mobile or desktop respond, their replies go directly to the DMs (direct messages) rather than showing up in the public feed. Beneath each post, people can still see smiley-faced icons indicating that others have liked or replied, but only the original poster can view the exact number of interactions and who engaged.
After 24 hours, ghost posts disappear from public view but remain accessible to their creator in an “Archived” section, found within the main settings menu.
Speaking to TechCrunch, Meta said the new feature aims to make users more comfortable with casual and short-lived content, similar to the success of Stories on Instagram and Facebook. The company hopes ghost posts will inspire users to share more unfiltered thoughts, engage in live conversations, and experiment with new types of real-time content.
How To Use the Ghost Post Feature on Threads?
Caption – How to Ghost Post on Threads. (Image credit – Meta)
To create a ghost post, users can tap the “ghost” icon on the app’s compose screen while posting from a mobile device. Once published, ghost posts appear in others’ timelines surrounded by a dotted conversation bubble, making them easy to distinguish from regular posts.
According to certain reports, users’ messaging preferences do affect the feature.
If message requests are turned off, only people you follow can reply to your ghost posts. If message requests are on, replies from non-followers will appear in your message request inbox. These options can be managed through the profile’s drop-down menu in the top right corner.
Interestingly, Twitter (now X) tried something similar in 2020 with a feature called Fleets, which displayed disappearing content at the top of users’ feeds. However, it was discontinued the following year due to low user engagement.
For Threads, however, Meta believes there’s still strong potential.
With over 400 million monthly users, Threads is Meta’s rival to Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter). The app continues to evolve rapidly with new features aimed at improving engagement and content variety. The platform has been expanding steadily since its July 2023 launch, adding features such as custom feeds, direct messaging, fediverse integration (enabling cross-platform interactions with networks like Mastodon), longer text posts up to 10,000 characters, spoiler-hiding tools, and interest-based communities.
FAQs
Q1. What are ghost posts on Threads?
Answer. Ghost posts are temporary posts that disappear after 24 hours. They’re designed for casual, low-pressure sharing and remain accessible only to the creator in an archived section.
Q2. How do replies to ghost posts work?
Answer. Replies don’t appear publicly. Instead, they go directly to the original poster’s DMs. Only the poster can see who interacted and how many replies or likes were received.
Q3. How can I create a ghost post on Threads?
Answer. Tap the ghost icon on the compose screen in the mobile app. Once posted, ghost posts appear with a dotted bubble and follow your messaging preferences for reply visibility.
