LAGOS, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA) – Threads, the micro-blogging platform developed by Meta as a rival to Elon Musk’s X, has gained significant popularity within months of its launch.
Despite its early success, users encountered a hurdle – the inability to delete their Threads profile without also deleting their associated Instagram account.
Responding to user feedback, Instagram’s head, Adam Mosseri, has announced two new updates aimed at addressing these concerns.
In a recent post on Threads, Mosseri shared news of these updates based on user input.
The first update fulfills a much-requested feature: the capability to delete a Threads profile independently from the linked Instagram account.
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Previously, due to the connection between Threads profiles and their corresponding Instagram accounts, users found it impossible to remove their presence from Threads without deleting their entire Instagram account.
While users could temporarily deactivate their Threads profile, they lacked the option to delete it outright.
With this new update, users now have the ability to delete their Threads profile without affecting their presence on Meta’s photo-sharing platform.
This can be accomplished by navigating to Settings > Account > Delete or Deactivate Profile, where the option to select “delete” completely removes the Threads account.
Moreover, Threads is introducing a second update to grant users more control over who sees their posts across Meta’s social platforms.
Presently, posts on Threads also appear on Instagram and Facebook feeds, a move intended to drive engagement across Meta’s established platforms towards its newest one.
Addressing privacy concerns raised by users who lacked control over the visibility of their Threads posts, this update allows users to opt out of featuring their content on platforms outside of Threads. Users can access this feature in the Privacy section of the Settings menu.
Since its high-profile launch in July, Threads has faced criticism for its lack of standard features expected on text-based social media platforms.
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Initially unavailable on the Web, Threads recently introduced a web version in August to align itself with X (previously Twitter).
The app has also faced scrutiny for its extensive user data collection, akin to other Meta-owned apps.
Despite a record-breaking launch with 100 million downloads in a short span, Threads struggled to maintain its user base in the subsequent weeks, experiencing a significant drop in users.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg emphasized the company’s focus on enhancing user retention, acknowledging the gap between the vast sign-ups and actual sustained usage.
