Threads Challenges X By Offering Free Support For Up To 10k Characters, Plus Prominent Links

After precocious being spotted testing a measurement to stock longer text, Threads, Meta’s X competitor, is now officially rolling retired nan characteristic that allows users to connect up to 10,000 characters of matter to their post. The summation has been designed pinch nan needs of creators successful mind, arsenic it supports linking retired to contented extracurricular of Threads, for illustration newsletters, blogs, podcasts, and more.

Before this update, Threads supported 500 characters — which is already acold much than nan 280 characters offered to X’s unverified users. However, X successful 2023 introduced a measurement for its paid subscribers to post up to 25,000 characters, successful nan hopes of encouraging creators to people their contented straight connected its platform.

Meta, meanwhile, isn’t going rather that far. Instead, nan institution says that nan 10,000 characters springiness group much room to definitive themselves, but besides allows them to beforehand their activity and thrust others to “wherever it lives,” moreover if not connected Threads itself.

Image Credits:Meta/Threads

Ahead of nan launch, Meta noticed that group were utilizing screenshots to stock longer contented from books, articles, newsletters, podcast transcripts, and more, which inspired nan feature’s summation and design.

The institution saw that its users often wanted to constituent group to nan original activity aliases spot to acquisition their ain work, aft starting a speech astir nan taxable connected Threads. For instance, authors whitethorn want to stock matter from an upcoming book to thrust preorders, whereas journalists whitethorn want to beforehand 1 of their longer features.

On X, users person agelong worked astir characteristic count limitations by threading and numbering a bid of linked posts to stock longer thoughts, aliases by uploading screenshots from an app for illustration Apple’s Notes. Seeing this trend, X tried to capitalize connected nan request for a longer characteristic count by making it a paid feature.

Threads, however, is making its further characters disposable for free.

The institution confirmed to TechCrunch that it doesn’t person plans to monetize posts pinch matter attachments astatine this time. Plus, Meta noted that matter successful nan posts tin beryllium formatted pinch highlighting, bold aliases underlined text, strikethroughs, and italics. You tin moreover adhd emojis.

The institution says it’s exploring further enhancements based connected organization feedback, arsenic well.

Notably, Meta says if creators nexus retired to contented extracurricular of Threads, that nexus will beryllium displayed “prominently” successful nan attachment for nan assemblage to click. This is besides a changeable astatine X, which changed its personification interface to downplay links’ visibility, and often blocks links to extracurricular services astatine proprietor Elon Musk’s whim.

There are immoderate drawbacks to utilizing Threads’ longer text, though.

The contented successful nan matter attachments won’t beryllium indexed by hunt engines for illustration Google, and it won’t beryllium federated. The second refers to really Threads supports nan publication of its posts to nan wider unfastened societal web, including decentralized services for illustration Mastodon. This support allows Threads users to hunt for and travel users from different servers too Threads, spot who follows you and who liked your station from those servers, arsenic good arsenic spot and for illustration posts connected Threads posted by users connected different servers.

Meta says it’s exploring really to federate nan longer matter attachments for early iterations.