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As Threads has grown to more than 130 million users, one of the major remaining \u201cmissing\u201d features users often complain about is the lack of direct messaging abilities. But those missing out on DMs may soon have a new option to message other Threads users.<\/p>\n
Meta is starting <\/a> messaging features that rely on Instagram\u2019s inbox but allow new messages to be initiated from the Threads app. The feature has begun <\/a> for some Threads users, who report seeing a \u201cmessage\u201d button atop other users\u2019 profiles where the \u201cmention\u201d feature used to be. A Meta spokesperson confirmed the change, saying the company was \u201ctesting the ability to send a message from Threads to Instagram.\u201d<\/p>\n Of note, Threads still doesn\u2019t have its own inbox, and it\u2019s not clear if it ever will. Instagram head Adam Mosseri has said multiple times that he doesn\u2019t want to create a <\/a> for Threads, but <\/a> \u201cmake the Instagram inbox work\u201d in the app. A Meta spokesperson further confirmed that \u201cthis is not a test of DMs on Threads.\u201d<\/p>\n But even though it\u2019s not a full-fledged DM feature, the ability to send a message from the Threads app without having to switch to Instagram could at least make messaging from Threads a little less clunky. Actually checking or replying to those messages, though, will still require users to head to the Instagram app.<\/p>\n That may still seem like an entirely unnecessary step, but Mosseri has pointed out that building two versions of the same inbox could easily get complicated. \u201cIf, in the end, we can\u2019t make the Instagram inbox work for Threads, we\u2019ll have a hard choice to make between (1) mirroring the Instagram inbox in Threads and dealing with notification routing weirdness, and (2) building a totally separate Threads inbox and dealing with the fact that you\u2019ll have two redundant message threads with each of your friends with the same handles in two different apps,\u201d he wrote in <\/a> in November. \u201cNeither seems great.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n