Threads Will Finally Let Users Delete Their Accounts Without Losing Instagram Too

When Meta introduced Threads in July, intended to be a rival to X, the system previously recognized as Twitter, it quickly became the most quickly downloaded application in history.

But the momentum did not hold. Customers complained that the platform had fewer attributes than some of the other new platforms competing to be the New Twitter. It lacked subject matter tags, direct messaging and any way to access content from a desktop. (Threads has considering the fact that released a net model.)

An additional crucial grievance: Many users who had put in several years very carefully curating their Instagram accounts joined Threads on a whim only to uncover that they could not delete just one devoid of offering up the other, far too.

Instagram claimed early on that it was investigating a deal with to the difficulty, but it took till Monday evening for Mr. Mosseri to formally announce the information, “based on opinions from our Threads community.”

The dilemma of deletion has also played into a larger query of Meta’s dealing with of data assortment and privacy.

In May, the firm was fined a file $1.3 billion and purchased to stop sending facts gathered on Facebook buyers in Europe to the United States, and the debut of Threads was postponed in Europe, in element, for the reason that of rules in the area all-around facts, in accordance to an interview with Mr. Mosseri.

Britain’s privateness watchdog, the Info Commissioner’s Place of work, stated on Tuesday that it had been “clear” with Meta that end users ought to not have to sacrifice employing just one service to be eradicated from a different.

Because Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter final calendar year, people unimpressed with some of its adjustments have searched for an alternate. But no clear challenger has emerged — while platforms this sort of as Mastodon, Bluesky and, yes, Threads, are nevertheless vying for their favor.

Along with the deletion aspect, Mr. Mosseri unveiled one more update, just one that will exhibit posts that Threads posts straight on Meta’s other platforms, Facebook and Instagram. But he shot down speculation that the app would add direct messaging, another perform typical to social media applications like Instagram and, indeed, Twitter.

“We’re not building DMs into Threads,” he mentioned.