Threads, Instagram’s Twitter dupe, is rolling out the ability to attach text to a post, allowing up to 10,000 additional characters. Talk about TL;DR.
In all seriousness, it could prove a useful tool. It’s a way to share longer blocks of writing without posting a massive wall of text, since it takes the form of an attachment. Importantly, you’ll still be able to link to the origin, too. So, if you’re, say, a writer, then you can share a portion of your article while also directing folks to your website.
Prior to this shift, Threads had a 500-character limit, which could hinder posting longer ideas. The vision behind the text attachment is that it can replace often difficult-to-read screenshots that served as workarounds for the character limit.
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“This gives people more room to express themselves and the ability for them to easily promote and drive people to their work wherever it lives,” Meta noted about the new feature.
X, meanwhile, has long allowed some users to post extra text, but this feature is limited to paid users. Folks with a free account have access to just 280 characters. Bluesky, another popular Twitter dupe, has a 300-character limit.
How to use the text attachment feature
Using the text attachment on Threads is pretty simple. You just have to click the new “text” icon to make an attachment. You can then either copy and paste the additional text or draft it right in the attachment feature. If you want the source material to display prominently, you just need to make sure to link to it in the body of the post and not the attachment itself. Then boom, you’re set to share way more text.