Meta’s X competitor, Threads, is introducing a new “disappearing posts” feature that will allow the app’s over 400 million monthly users to share their thoughts and engage in conversations that are automatically archived after 24 hours. The option, dubbed “ghost posts,” launches on Monday for Threads users worldwide.
This is pretty exciting stuff, and I’m going to walk you through everything you need to know about this new feature and why it might be exactly what social media needs right now.
How Ghost Posts Work
So what makes a ghost post different from a regular post? Let me break it down for you.
Users will now be able to create a ghost post on mobile devices by toggling on the new “ghost” icon on the app’s compose screen. When the post is published, it appears in others’ timelines with a dotted conversation bubble around it to differentiate the post from other content.
Other users on both desktop and mobile devices can reply to the post, but these responses are sent directly to the poster’s DMs (direct messages); these replies don’t appear in the timeline. So instead of public comments that everyone can see, your replies go straight to the person’s inbox.
When you publish a ghost post, likes are visible only to you. Likewise, if someone replies to it, the reply will appear as a direct message, and only you will be able to see it. This means no more anxiety about whether people are liking your post or what kind of comments you might get. It’s just you and your thoughts, with the option for others to reach out privately if they want to engage.
What Happens After 24 Hours
The coolest part about ghost posts is what happens when the clock runs out. After 24 hours, the posts disappear from the timeline but are still available to the original poster from the “archived” section, accessed from the main settings menu.
So your post isn’t gone forever. It’s just hidden from public view. You can still go back and look at it whenever you want, but everyone else will only see it for that first day.
Why Meta Created This Feature
You might be wondering why Threads decided to launch disappearing posts in the first place. The answer is pretty straightforward. Parent company Meta told TechCrunch the feature was designed to encourage more low-stakes sharing within the feed.
Social media has become way too serious. We’re all worried about saying the wrong thing, posting at the wrong time, or having our words come back to haunt us years later. This pressure has made a lot of us stop sharing personal thoughts altogether. We just scroll, like a few posts, and keep our opinions to ourselves.
Meta says that the motivation behind ghost posts is to offer a way for users to “share your unfiltered thoughts,” encouraging more authentic takes without the pressure of permanence. And honestly, that sounds pretty refreshing to me.
The Twitter Connection Nobody Wants to Talk About
Here’s something interesting that most people aren’t talking about. The addition could also give Threads a new way to challenge Elon Musk’s X, where users today have to opt for third-party, often paid services to delete their old tweets if they don’t want to do a lot of manual labor.
On X, if you want your old posts to disappear, you either have to manually delete them one by one, which takes forever, or pay for third-party tools to do it for you.
It’s a smart competitive move, and it shows that Threads is paying attention to what users actually want from their social media experience.
A Few Important Things to Know
Before you start posting all your unfiltered thoughts, there are a few limitations you should be aware of. You won’t be able to attach photos or images to Ghost Posts, while you also won’t be able to edit your replies to a temporary update (though you will be able to edit the main update).
Also, Ghosts Posts also won’t be shared to the Fediverse, if you have this feature enabled. So if you’re one of the people who has Threads connected to Mastodon or other federated platforms, your ghost posts won’t show up there.
My Honest Take on This
I actually think this is a really smart move by Threads. Social media has become exhausting because everything feels permanent and high-stakes. Every post needs to be perfect, every opinion needs to be carefully worded, and we’re all constantly worried about being misunderstood or criticized.
Ghost posts give us permission to be more spontaneous and authentic. You can share a random thought, a hot take about the latest news, or just something funny that popped into your head without worrying that it’ll be on your profile forever. And if people want to engage, they can do it privately through DMs instead of starting a public debate.
The feature is available now for all Threads users worldwide, so there’s no waiting period or beta testing. You can start using ghost posts today if you want to. Just look for that ghost icon when you’re composing a new post.
Will everyone use this feature? Probably not. But for those of us who miss the days when social media felt more casual and less like a permanent record of our lives, ghost posts might be exactly what we’ve been waiting for.
