After testing out post drafts internally over the past few weeks, the Threads team has now launched a live test of the option with selected users, while it’s also added an integrated camera function, and a new pathway to challenge its moderation rulings.
First off, on drafts, one of the most-requested Threads features. Today, some users have noticed a new “Drafts” option appearing in-stream, which enables them to save their unposted Threads.
Threads has confirmed that this is now in testing with selected users. For those in the test pool, you’ll see a new option when you go to exit out of an in-progress post to “Save Draft”. Your draft post will then be accessible via the bottom compose button.
Though it is limited. Users can currently only save one draft post, so it’s not exactly like the draft options available in other apps.
But it is a start, which should help to provide more opportunity to compose your best content in the app, while it is also worth noting that all of your posts within a Thread will be saved together if you exit.
Threads has also added a new camera integration, which will enable users to take photos in-stream (not video as yet).
Though that’s also limited, with users currently only able to take one photo per post.
But again, it’s a starting point, and another development in the continued expansion of the app.
Which is still trailing X, despite many former Twitter users now migrating across to the alternative app. Certain communities have shifted away from Elon’s social platform experiment, which has helped to establish a foundation for Threads’ growth. But still, many others remain embedded on X, and seem unlikely to be shifting from their established home.
Sports communities, in particular, remain active on X, while live commentary is still better facilitated by X’s systems, and both seem unlikely to be usurped by Threads, which has opted not to make real-time content a priority as yet.
Threads is now testing Trending Topics, which is a step in this direction. But the overt push to demote news and politics in the app is likely to impede take-up, and ensure many discussions remain wired to X, as opposed to shifting across.
The question then is: “Is that actually a better approach?”
Meta’s view is that it can build a better version of what Twitter was by focusing on positivity, and if it can, the impact of that could be significant, both for Threads itself and for broader online engagement.
But I don’t know. Human nature is drawn to controversy, and content that sparks the biggest emotional reaction, and X currently hosts a lot more of that, and more of the real-time discussion surrounding such. And I’m not sure that Meta’s approach will work in unseating it.
But if you do happen to post semi-controversial content on Threads, and it gets removed as a result, you will also now have a new avenue of appeal, with the Oversight Board now accepting appeals against Meta’s decisions relating to Threads content, in addition to its other apps.
Which is a good update, which will provide additional avenues for those who feel that Meta has acted incorrectly in its moderation.
But as noted, that’s a smaller consideration in Threads’ broader growth push, which has already slowed significantly from its initial interest.
The variance here seems to be that many users want a Twitter alternative, while Meta itself is not interested in building that. Somewhere in the middle, these two will meet, but whether that’s more to Meta’s side, or the users, could ultimately dictate the app’s fate.