You can now edit Threads after you've posted them. It may seem like a small feature, but it's one that Twitter (now X) users demanded for over a decade before finally getting the option — if you paid for it.
And now, the ability to edit Threads is a standard function in an app that's less than one year old. But that's only half of the big news coming from Threads. Now, users can also upload voice notes as Threads. The feature could open up a whole new strategy when it comes to popularizing your content on the platform.
How (And Why) To Edit Threads
After you've posted a new Thread on the app, check it out in your feed (visible by clicking the little "person" icon in the bottom right). From there, find the Thread you want to edit and click the three dots in the top right corner. You'll see an option to edit pop up on the screen.
Once you've edited the Thread, you'll save it and return to your feed. From there, that Thread will look as if that's how it always was. Unlike things like editing messages on iPhone, there's no indication that a user has edited a Thread. This may change, though — after all, somebody *could* use the function for misleading purposes.
The ability to edit your posts is obviously something most users have come to expect from word processors, but social media has had a bit of an up and down time adopting the concept. In some cases you're able to edit some parts of a piece of content, but not all. The argument, at least in Twitter's case when Jack Dorsey still owned the platform, was that the app wanted to preserve its original sense as an SMS service, where once you send a text, you can't take it back.
Of course, now there are lots of features that allow you to unsend emails and delete or edit texts. From a practical standpoint, it makes it much easier to preserve and update content, especially with things like dynamic links or new info.
A New Method Of Media: Voice Notes
While uploading audio to social media is nothing new, the idea of sending a Thread that is entirely a voice note is pretty enticing. Though the feature just rolled out to users, it already feels like a unique way to be a bit more intimate with your social posts.
Yes, it definitely has limitations. For starters, you have to be somewhere you can listen to audio. And you have absolutely no idea what's going to be said, so you run the risk of potentially playing something embarrassing (or worse) out loud. And there are plenty of questions about how to moderate these kinds of posts.
Also, the fact that you can respond to a post with a voice note could open people up to a lot of, well, everything. It's just a whole new can of worms.
But in the context where we're only thinking about how this could help us engage with our fans and audience in a positive manner, it's definitely an intriguing option in the toolbox. Even if audio snippets are old hat, the application has the potential to at least feel fresh in the context of social media and microblogging.