With a new social media platform, you always have to figure out how to customize it and which settings you prefer. That’s why we’re happy to help you with five Threads tips for a better user experience.
1. Turn off Threads suggestions
You may have noticed that Threads posts also appear regularly on Instagram. Nice if you want to be found, but if you prefer to separate it, it is a clumsy affair. Fortunately, you can turn this off.
Go to your profile and press the two lines at the top right. Then go to ‘Privacy > Suggest messages on other apps’. Here you can disable the suggestion of your posts on both Facebook and Instagram. Does that one former colleague no longer see your drunken posts?
Threads, an Instagram app
7.8 (288,804 reviews)
Free
via Google Play
2. Follow accounts that are not yet on Threads
Do you want to easily follow a number of accounts that you follow on Instagram on Threads? You already get that option when you create your account, but after that it is more difficult. Especially if those accounts have not yet created a Threads page, or have not yet appeared on your timeline.
Fortunately, you can easily look this up via the settings. In your profile, go to the two lines at the top right and then to ‘Follow and invite friends’. Below you will see under the heading Follow > Instagram friends. Here you can find Instagram accounts you follow in a list and easily tap the follow button to follow them.
Aren’t they on Threads yet? Then you can follow them in advance when they create their Threads account. You will also receive notifications, provided you have enabled the notifications of course.
3. Filter Threads you don’t want to see
You may have noticed it in the first few weeks: there is quite a bit of rubbish. Meta’s algorithm doesn’t seem to fully understand what a user does and doesn’t find interesting. As a result, you see posts on the ‘For you’ timeline that are often not relevant. Are you really fed up with certain topics? Then you can filter them out.
You do this by going to your profile and tapping the two lines at the top right. Then choose ‘Other account settings’. You will now be redirected to the settings in the Instagram app. Here, tap ‘Suggested content > Specific words and phrases’. You can now add words here that relate to topics you do not want to see. You can add several at the same time by placing a comma between the words.
It’s not ideal, but this way you can get a little more control over your timeline and what you see there. Don’t feel like reading threads about crypto, for example? Then you can easily put that word in the list.
4. Easily quote a Thread
Do you have a post that you would like to repost with your own addition? There is no really useful term for it yet, but the phenomenon is the same as ‘quote tweeting’ on Twitter, now X. Of course, a handy shortcut cannot be missing from our list of Threads tips.
Everyone was talking about it for three days, even though it’s actually not that exciting. If you want to quote a Thread, press and hold the repost button. Then the editor opens where you already have the Thread in, with space above it to type something.
Is it really more effort to open a Thread and then tap the repost arrows? Not as far as we are concerned. Nevertheless, it is a fun option and may be useful for live events in the future.
5. Translate threads from other languages
Curious what the Thread says on your timeline, but don’t feel like using Google Translate? That is not necessary, because Threads can already show you a translation of the Thread from your timeline. A post has a translation icon at the bottom right. When you tap this, the Thread changes to the language you have set the app to (such as Dutch).
Would you rather change the language of your app? Then go to your settings via your profile and tap Language to choose which one you prefer to use.
