Meta is set to introduce a new feature on Threads account, its text-based social media platform, allowing users to delete their Threads accounts without impacting their associated Instagram accounts.
Presently, deleting a Threads account automatically results in the deletion of the linked Instagram account.
Launched by Meta in July as a competitor to Twitter, Threads rapidly gained millions of downloads within its initial five days. Users, particularly those already on Instagram, could conveniently create Threads accounts by logging in with their Instagram credentials.
One significant limitation, however, was the inability to delete a Threads account without also losing the connected Instagram account. According to reports, Meta is actively working to resolve this issue by the end of the year.
Michel Protti, Meta’s chief privacy officer for product, acknowledged that enabling this feature presented a complex challenge. Nevertheless, the company is committed to ensuring users have the right to delete their Threads accounts without affecting their Instagram accounts. Possible solutions may include deactivating the Threads account, setting it to private, or selectively deleting threads while preserving the integrity of the Instagram account.
This forthcoming update is poised to grant Threads users greater control over their accounts and privacy, streamlining the management of their presence on the platform.
While Threads was quick to gain 100 million users, the analyst firm forecasts Threads active U.S. user base to sit at 23.7 million by the end of the year. Thread’s target X, on the other hand, will have 56.1 million active users in the U.S. at the same time.
Those just might be the kind of numbers you’d expect from a half-a-year old social network compared to a decade-old one. Outside of the U.S., Meta has the additional challenge of launching Threads in the EU. So far, the company has opted not to allow account creation in the EU due to heightened privacy compliance standards.
