(Credit: Adam Mosseri/Threads)
Threads, Meta's Twitter/X alternative, got a rough start. It was missing all kinds of features, from (still absent) direct messages to a Web platform. You couldn't even delete your Threads account without deleting your Instagram account. But the service just addressed that last issue.
The news comes from the current head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri. If you regret creating a Threads account but want to keep your Instagram account, you'll soon be able to delete the former account without deleting the latter. According to Mosseri, the feature is rolling out now, though he didn't specify a timeline for that rollout.
Mosseri also made other announcements and clarifications. Until now, when you posted on Threads, that message could appear on your Facebook and Instagram accounts, and you didn't have much control over that behavior. Threads will get a new Privacy setting to control how it shares to your other social networks.
But if you were hoping that Threads would pick up another notable missing feature, DMs, we have bad news for you. According to Mosseri, despite some screenshots suggesting otherwise, the company has no intention of bringing DMs to the platform. Those screenshots that suggested otherwise likely came from Instagram, which Threads is built upon.
Threads has a long way to go before it could be considered a true contender to X, even if that social network's current owner seems intent on killing the service. Though Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg says Thread now has just shy of 100 million monthly active users, that's still far behind X's claimed 550 million monthly active users.