Get the latest tech news

Threads gets its own DMs as app distances itself from Instagram

At launch, Threads DMs will support one-on-one chats, preset emoji reactions, the ability to report spam, and mute DMs (as on Instagram). Other features, like group messaging, inbox filters, and more advanced message controls, will arrive in a later release.

They’ll support one-on-one chats, preset emoji reactions, the ability to report spam, and mute DMs (as on Instagram). With the addition of DMs, Threads becomes more competitive with other text-first social apps like X and Bluesky, where users can engage with one another directly or even in group chats, as in X’s case. Instead, she said that DMs are meant to build on the community that people have created in the public space on Threads — a network that’s shaping up to be entirely different from its parent app, Instagram, Smith pointed out.

Get the Android app