Threads may anticipate a significant increase in content sources from parent firm Meta. Facebook is exploring a cross-posting function that would enable users to publish to both networks at once, utilizing the same capability as Facebook-Instagram cross-posting.
The business said a limited iOS test has started, but not in the EU. A Meta spokesman stated users may share Facebook text and link postings to threads.
The change might save content providers who publish photographs, videos, and text updates from posting in several locations. It also connects Threads to Meta’s app ecosystem, which might enhance its app if the test spreads. The Meta app family has 3.98 billion users. Even a small percentage of Facebook users cross-posting for Threads might greatly boost the app’s content.
Following its Stories cross-posting on Instagram, Facebook implemented it in 2021. When Threads, its Twitter/X rival, launched this summer, the firm used its broader social networks to swiftly build its user base.
After launching, Threads automatically connected new users with Instagram friends and followers, helping the network reach a record 100 million users in five days and one-fifth of Twitter/X’s weekly active users. In Meta’s most recent quarter, Threads had over 130 million monthly active users owing to its placement in Facebook and Instagram’s main feeds.
Threads user @whimchic (Ljiljana Grujicic) uploaded a screenshot of Facebook’s iOS app testing cross-posting. When she tried the functionality, the post was instantly published to both accounts connected with her profile without Facebook account details or a cross-posting signal. Someone who uses their full identity on Facebook but an anonymous username on Threads may worry about the latter.
Threads has experimented with cross-posting before. Threads users were dissatisfied when their postings were automatically posted on Facebook and Instagram, where their audiences were distinct from Threads followers. Users often communicate with family and friends on Facebook and Instagram, yet they publicly discuss their jobs or politics on threads, like on Twitter. The reaction subsided as Meta offered an option to disable automatic sharing by default in response to user complaints.
Facebook tested new functionalities beyond cross-posting. Grujicic posted a LinkedIn snapshot of a “Write with AI” writing aid test to help users write articles.
