In case you’ve been determinedly staring at a wall instead of opting into social media’s latest buzz typhoon, Threads is here.
Meta’s answer to Twitter launched on Thursday, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg claiming 10 million people joined Threads in the first seven hours. That’s a significant chunk of users torpedoing themselves onto the bandwagon, claiming that sweet, sweet totally-a-trap badge, and enjoying the weirdly wholesome vibe before all the trolls get here.
Directly linked to your Instagram account (almost aggressively so), Threads is a standalone app where you can share up to 500 character text updates, and add links, photos, and five-minute videos.
We know it’s a new app, and Meta really rushed this one out to capitalise on the ongoing bin fire that is Twitter’s aggressive paid subscriber strategy, the lack of fancy BlueSky invite codes going around, and the sheer learning curve that is Mastodon. So, naturally with a fresh release, there’s a few things missing that users will be used to on other social media apps, including Meta’s own Instagram and Facebook.
Here’s a list of things not yet on Threads that people are definitely noticing their absence.
1. Editable alt text
Threads needs user generated alt text ASAP. As Threads has been built by the Instagram team, the app may be using a chunk of that code — but alternative text (alt text) on the platform is AI generated, not user generated. Alt text is a standard, simple feature to make apps more accessible to millions of users using assistive tech like screen reading devices. “The core accessibility features available on Instagram today, such as screen reader support and AI-generated image descriptions, are also enabled on Threads,” reads Meta’s blog post.
You’re able to edit alt text on Instagram, but it doesn’t seem like Threads has that option yet.
2. Emoji
No, you can’t use emoji on Threads yet. Even though it’s right there on your keyboard. But chances are this will be fixed pretty quickly, as people sure love their emoji.
3. Hashtags
Threads hasn’t yet enabled the use of hashtags in posts, but considering they work on Meta’s other platforms Instagram and Facebook, it’s not going to be long before they’re here.
4. Trending topics
It’s only been a few hours, so the only trending topic on Threads is, well, Threads. Just as the app hasn’t yet enabled hashtags, it doesn’t have a Trending page like you can find in Twitter’s Explore tab. But considering Instagram generates trending or algorithmically picked posts for you in the Search and Explore tab, it’s likely this will end up as Threads feature.
Meta says it’s working on it: “Soon we’ll be adding a number of new features to help you continue to discover threads and creators you’re interested in, including improved recommendations in feed and a more robust search function that makes it easier to follow topics and trends in real time.”
5. A chronological feed
Instagram finally let users change their feed from algorithm to a chronological in 2022, so Threads will likely also offer this option eventually. For now, the best you can do is make sure you’re seeing the people you actually follow in your feed.
5. Following page
If you head to your Profile page, you’ll notice you can see how many followers you have, but not who you’re following. In fact, you can’t see who anyone is following.
6. Embed codes
If you want to embed a Thread post on a website, there’s no embed code yet — just a url to share the link.
