Threads’ new disappearing ‘ghost posts’ get mixed reactions online

Instagram feeds introduced a new feature this week: “ghost posts,” which are posts that disappear after 24 hours. The internet isn’t sure what to make of it.

Ghost posts aren’t a terribly new concept. The disappearance of messages sparked the rise of Snapchat a decade ago. People post and then delete posts – on X, Threads or Bluesky – at any time. But automatically archiving text posts is a somewhat unique idea. And the Internet has received mixed reactions.

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Personally, I don’t see anything wrong with Meta’s new ghost messages. At worst, it’s a feature that won’t really catch on. But I can also see some use cases. Let’s say you’re following a sports game and want to comment in real time, but don’t want your timeline to forever host random reactions to big plays divorced from context. Ghost messages are perfect in this case.

This could also be useful for telling a hot take you don’t want to see forever. After all, hot takes are the backbone of text-based social media sites.

The Internet is still figuring out if it likes ghost posts, but don’t be surprised if you see other sites end up copying the feature.