Threads Challenges X: Free Support & Prominent Links

Threads Increases Post Character Limit to 10,000

Meta’s Threads, a competitor to X (formerly Twitter), has begun a rollout of a new feature enabling users to share posts containing up to 10,000 characters. This update was observed in testing recently and is now being made available to the public.

Designed for Creators

This expansion in character allowance is specifically intended to benefit content creators. It facilitates the inclusion of links to external resources, such as newsletters, blogs, podcasts, and other online content.

Comparison to X’s Character Limits

Previously, Threads posts were limited to 500 characters, significantly exceeding the 280-character limit imposed on unverified X users. However, X introduced a longer-form posting option for its paid subscribers, allowing them to publish posts of up to 25,000 characters.

Meta is not matching X’s highest limit, but asserts that the 10,000-character allowance provides users with greater expressive freedom and the ability to direct audiences to their work, regardless of where it is hosted.

Inspiration Behind the Update

Prior to this feature’s development, Meta observed users frequently sharing longer content via screenshots – excerpts from books, articles, newsletters, and podcast transcripts, for example. This practice informed both the design and implementation of the expanded text post functionality.

The company recognized a desire among its user base to direct attention to original sources or platforms where their work could be accessed or purchased, following initial discussions on Threads.

Addressing Workarounds on X

On X, users have historically circumvented character limitations by creating threads – a series of connected posts – or by sharing screenshots from applications like Apple’s Notes. X attempted to capitalize on this demand by making a higher character count a feature exclusive to paying subscribers.

Threads Offers Free Access

In contrast, Threads is providing the increased character limit without charge. Meta has confirmed to TechCrunch that there are currently no plans to monetize posts utilizing the extended text attachment feature.

Formatting Options

Furthermore, Meta has incorporated text formatting options within the posts, including highlighting, bolding, underlining, strikethroughs, and italics. Emojis can also be included.

The company is actively exploring further enhancements based on user feedback.

Prominent Link Display

A key differentiator is the prominent display of links to external content. When creators share links, they will be clearly visible within the post. This is a direct response to changes made to X’s user interface, which reduced the visibility of links and sometimes blocks them entirely.

Limitations of the New Feature

Despite its benefits, the longer text attachments in Threads have certain limitations.

• The content within these attachments will not be indexed by search engines like Google.
• The content will not be federated.

Federation refers to Threads’ support for publishing posts to the broader, decentralized social web, including services like Mastodon. This allows users to interact with content and users across different platforms.

Future Development

Meta is investigating methods to enable federation for the longer text attachments in future updates.