Threads Adds ‘Ghost Posts’ That Vanish After 24 Hours

[justseyi]

Meta’s X competitor, Threads, has introduced a new feature called “ghost posts,” giving users the ability to share disappearing posts that automatically vanish after 24 hours. The update, which rolled out globally on Monday, aims to encourage more casual and spontaneous conversations among the platform’s 400 million monthly users.

The new option allows users to create a “ghost post” by toggling on a ghost icon in the compose screen on mobile. Once published, the post appears in followers’ timelines with a dotted conversation bubble that distinguishes it from regular posts.

While other users can reply to a ghost post from desktop or mobile, responses are sent privately to the poster’s direct messages instead of appearing publicly in the feed. Each post also displays engagement indicators—such as smiley-face icons for likes and replies—but only the original poster can view detailed statistics and participant identities.

After 24 hours, ghost posts disappear from public timelines but remain accessible to the author in an “Archived” section within the app’s settings menu.

Meta explained that the feature was designed to foster “low-stakes sharing” on Threads, allowing people to express themselves freely without worrying about long-term visibility.

The company believes this move could help differentiate Threads from Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter), where users often rely on third-party tools or paid services to bulk-delete older content.

This isn’t the first time a social platform has tested ephemeral text sharing. Twitter introduced a similar concept called Fleets in 2020, which it later discontinued due to poor adoption. Meta, however, is betting that Threads users—already accustomed to short-lived content through Instagram Stories—will respond more positively.

Since its July 2023 debut, Threads has evolved rapidly, adding features like custom feeds, DMs, fediverse integration, long-form text support (up to 10,000 characters), spoiler tools, and topic-based communities. The introduction of ghost posts marks the latest step in Meta’s effort to position Threads as a more dynamic and experimental social space.

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