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Users who delete their posts using third-party tools or whose posts are of short duration may find it useful to have posts disappear automatically. Threads announced earlier this month that it was only testing ephemeral postings as an internal prototype. TechCrunch has confirmed that the company is currently testing posts that will disappear within 24 hour with a small number of users.
A spokesperson for the company said that while there was no official statement from the company, this is a casual and new way to share content on Threads. It didn’t say if this experiment was limited to a certain region or who could activate these posts.
Alessandro Paluzzi, a reverse engineer for the app, published a ephemeral message on Friday. You can see the remaining time when you tap the reply button. Threads display a banner at the top of each post that indicates the thread will be deleted along with all replies when the timer expires. The banner does not mention quoted replies. However, we noticed that quoted posts also have a similar timer to the original post. They will disappear once the timer expires.
Paluzzi posted the first time about Threads in June. The screenshot showed a 24-hour button beside the Post button, which would publish a disappearing post. Christ Messina, a technologist, also found hints regarding these posts in the iOS code earlier this month. Messina pointed out that disappearing posts will not be shared with fediverse, as Threads will not be able delete these posts from ActivityPub powered servers. Threads began allowing users to send their posts to the fediverse in June .
Creators can use posts with a 24-hour deadline to share posts that are off-brand or off topic every now and then. They can also be helpful for people who want to comment on live events, which may be difficult to understand when taken out of context or irrelevant after the event has ended.
In the pre-Elon Musk period, Twitter introduced a similar format to Instagram Stories for disappearing messages called Fleets in 2021 . However, closed it down due to low usage .
Threads could be the only social network among its competitors — such as X Bluesky and Mastodon – to make ephemeral postings widely available.