There’s been a will-they-won’t-they going on with Threads direct messages for quite some time. According to Instagram (and Threads) head Adam Mosseri, Threads is not planning to build DMs. It still appears to be true – but it’s not the whole story.
Mosseri recently said on Threads that while DMs on Threads itself may not happen, Instagram’s messaging could be used instead. Many Threads users want an easy way to privately chat. Instagram already has messaging built in, so Mosseri thinks it may work better than creating a new system.
How might this look? You could possibly message anyone on Threads or Instagram, and your conversations would show up in one combined inbox. This could make sense since your accounts on both apps are connected. Threads already lets you share posts to Instagram DMs without leaving the app.
There are some challenges too. Like which app would send notifications for new messages? It could get annoying getting pings on both apps. The systems would also need a way to manage filters, blocks and more across both platforms.
Mosseri isn’t totally sure what the solution will be yet. But private messaging on Threads is likely coming at some point since people want it. Borrowing Instagram’s existing messaging may be easier than starting from scratch. We’ll have to wait and see exactly how it comes together!
