Meta has confirmed to TechCrunch that Threads is testing a new feature that allows users to easily share long-form text on the social network. Instead of creating multiple posts to express in-depth thoughts, users can now attach a block of text directly to their posts.
App researcher Radu Oncescu first discovered the “text attachment” feature on iOS and shared a screenshot. According to the app’s description, this feature enables users to “attach longer text and get creative with styling tools to share deeper thoughts, news snippets, book excerpts, and more.”
By facilitating long-form content sharing, Threads aims to retain creators and writers who prefer a broader audience for their articles, which they might otherwise post on blogs or platforms like Substack. This feature also eliminates the need for workarounds, such as sharing screenshots from a notes app, when users want to exceed the standard word limit for posts.
Threads user Robert P. Nickson demonstrated the feature, showing how a snippet of the long-form text appears in a gray box within the post. Viewers can click to read and scroll through the entire content.
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While Threads is introducing this feature for all users, its competitor, X, offers a similar long-form content option called “Articles,” which is available only to Premium subscribers. Currently, Threads only supports text sharing, whereas X allows users to include images and videos. As the feature is still in testing, there is potential for Threads to add multimedia support in the future.
Meta plans to expand this feature to more users soon. The support for long-form posts is part of a series of new features Threads has rolled out over the past year, including direct messaging, fediverse integrations, custom feeds, and AI enhancements.
Since its launch two years ago, Threads has surpassed 400 million monthly active users, while X has reported over 600 million monthly active users, according to statements from former CEO Linda Yaccarino.
SOURCE: TECH CRUNCH
