Threads is rapidly gaining popularity and making an interest as one of the fastest-growing social apps, even posing a challenge to Twitter. Being relatively new, there are several features of Threads that may not be immediately available. Here are a few noteworthy ones we discovered during its initial launch, including muting users and quickly following other Threads users.
If you’re not familiar with Threads, it means you haven’t joined the impressive 100 million users who signed up within just a few days.
What is Threads App?
Threads is a social app combining elements of Instagram and Twitter, developed by Meta, the parent company of Instagram. Since its release, it has adopted the social personality of Instagram while incorporating the appreciated format of Twitter. The term “threads” refers to the format of content on the app. Below let’s check the features of Threads.
Features of Threads
Quick Follow
One of the best features in Threads is the Quick Follow option, which prompts the question, “Why didn’t this exist before?!” Instead of navigating to someone’s profile and clicking the Follow button, you can simply tap the plus icon next to their username and confirm your decision to follow them. This feature proves particularly useful during the initial setup of the app. Since Threads connects to Instagram, it provides numerous helpful follow suggestions.
New Thread Shortcut
Each post on Threads is referred to as a “thread,” and users can string multiple threads together to create a long-form post that always refers back to the original content. In normal usage, you can draft a post and tap “Add to thread” to attach a secondary post to it, thereby creating a long-form thread before posting.
Threads offer a handy trick to create new threads more efficiently. After drafting your initial post, simply press the enter key on your keyboard three times. The third tap triggers a new thread and moves the cursor to a blank space connected to the previous post automatically.
This process can be repeated to create an extensive thread. While it’s equally easy to tap in the new post box to start a new tagged thread, this keyboard-triggered shortcut becomes convenient through muscle memory.
Mute Profiles
Upon initially using Threads, the homepage displayed content based on the Instagram algorithm, which wasn’t particularly relevant to me. As you follow more people on Threads, your home screen becomes populated with content that aligns better with your interests, but it requires some training.
If you see accounts whose posts you’d rather not see, Threads provides the option to “mute” those users. This feature is commonly found across social platforms. Simply tap the three-dot menu on a post from the Threads account you wish to mute, and when the menu appears, select the Mute option.
Muting someone in Threads hides their posts from your view, allowing you to browse without checking their content. The account you mute will not be aware that you have muted them.
Hidden Words
Threads has one more feature and that is Hidden Words. By accessing the Privacy page from your profile, you can find and tap on Hidden Words. In this section, you can choose to hide offensive replies and replies containing specific words or phrases. At the bottom of the page, you can enter the words or phrases you wish to avoid seeing.