Good news: you'll soon be able to send DMs in threads.
Bad news: it won't be sent via your dedicated Threads inbox.
This week, Meta began a new live test of DMs on Threads, with some users seeing a new “Message” CTA button on their Threads profile.
As you can see in this example shared by Chris Messina, the new Threads DM option technically lets you send a message to a user through the app, but as you can see in the prompt at the bottom, that message doesn't go through Threads itself; instead, it actually sends a DM to your Instagram inbox.
This isn't such a bad thing — it's a DM option within Threads, which offers an advanced connection process within the app — but many will be disappointed that Threads doesn't have its own DM inbox. As a Twitter replica, it should be closer to Twitter's functionality and easier to use across a wider range of applications.
However, this seems unlikely at this point.
Last November, amid speculation that Threads might acquire DM, Threads head Adam Mosseri poured cold water on the concept, explaining:
“The Threads app is built on top of the Instagram app, [back end code relating to DMs]I'm not going to include DMs in the thread.“
That's pretty clear, and in fact it's understandable why Meta isn't considering adding any new messaging products, given that they've been working for years to consolidate their messaging products into a single back-end infrastructure.
return 2019Meta has announced plans to combine Messenger, Instagram Direct, and WhatsApp into a single, interoperable inbox that can be accessed from any app. The program has been in development ever since, and while Meta faced opposition to certain elements of its push (most notably encryption by default across all messaging products), the path now seems paved for the next step.
This is why encryption within Messenger DM is becoming more widely adopted.
Given that this effort is still a work in progress, adding another DM element could make things even more complicated, which is why it makes sense that Meta is looking to use your Instagram inbox as a proxy for Threads messages.
But the Instagram connection to Threads remains as well, and given that Threads is set to become the next platform with a billion users, this may not be sustainable in the long term.
In reality, both apps serve very different purposes, and the profiles and topics that users follow on each app are naturally very different, so Threads would probably need to be separated out rather than treated as an IG offshoot, but there are also logical reasons to build an app based on Instagram's demographic rather than going it alone.
So in the long run, does this mean we'll eventually have separate thread DMs from IG?
That still seems difficult given Meta's plans to merge messaging, and there's speculation that Meta is merging messaging to prevent it from selling Instagram and WhatsApp if it's forced to do so, but with the FTC challenge ongoing, a sale remains a possibility. But a separate Threads inbox seems like a slim chance given the broader maneuvering that's taking place.
That could still happen if Threads eventually grows big enough to appoint its own CEO and separates from IG, but I don't think it would even be considered until Threads has at least 500 million users.
So, while DMs on threads are coming, they're not really happening – but they still work in a basic sense.
