Social media is all about providing communication and interaction. But some posts are best left alone.
Threads is Meta's answer to Elon Musk's X platform. It provides features just like X. In order to give more control to users, Threads is giving users the ability to grant or deny who can quote their posts.
If users don't want to just allow anyone quote their posts, with the update, they have the option to allow only people they follow to do so.
Or, they can make it so no one can quote their posts at all.
The head of Threads and Instagram for Meta, Adam Mosseri, announced the update, saying that he hopes it will "help keep Threads a more positive place."
Quote and reply controls are bundled together into a single dropdown menu.
Here, users can open the conversation to 'Anyone,' or limit it to 'Profiles you follow' or 'Mentioned only.'
Quote Control is expected to reduce the trend of users "dunking" other users.
Dunking is a term used when someone quotes another user's post with the intent of mocking them. While Quote Control won't stop users from taking screenshots and sharing posts they find objectionable, it does lower the likelihood of a series of "dunks" pushing the original post into viral status.
Besides Quote Controls, Mosseri also said that Threads is launching a feature that lets users filter out words and phrases from their feeds and mentions.
The 'Hidden Words' feature automatically mutes common words, phrases, and emojis that might be offensive to users.
In addition to these preset filters, users can add their own custom words and phrases in the settings.
Users can turn these settings off at any point in time.
Thanks to its parent company, Meta, Threads can easily borrow some capabilities and resources from the tech giant.
While Threads may never become a proper X replacement, this Quote Controls and the Hidden Words feature are great additions for people who use Threads frequently.
At this time, Threads has over 150 million monthly users.
This is still a far cry from X, which has around 500 million monthly users.
Although the app's popularity has waned, Threads continues adding more features to improve safety and overall user experience.
Read: Not Going Down Without A Fight, Meta Gives Threads Its First Major Update