Instagram Threads adds edit button and voice notes as it attempts to take over from Twitter

Ability to change posts after they go up has proven controversial in the past

This photo illustration created in Washington, DC, on July 6, 2023, shows the logo for Threads, an Instagram app, next to its page on the App Store (AFP via Getty Images)

Meta has added new edit features and voice notes to Instagram Threads, as it continues to try and take over from Twitter.

“Rolling out Edit and Voice Threads today. Enjoy!” wrote Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg on the site.

They are yet more changes as Meta looks to keep the momentum from the launch of Threads, during which it became the fastest growing app in the world but has struggled to keep users reading and posting. As with when Threads first launched, the new features come amid loud questions over the future of X since Elon Musk took over and changed its name from Twitter.

Twitter had previously taken years to add an edit button, and put it behind its Twitter Blue paid-for subscription tier. Some of its delay was thought to be a result of concerns about how to add the feature without contributing to disinformation.

Some had expressed concern that the button could be used to edit popular posts to change their wording, or suggest that information had been available at different times, for instance. Twitter addressed that problem by adding a clear marker when a post had been edited, and allowing users to see the history of those edits.

Threads does not offer an edit history, and is not thought to be adding one. But it did add a tiny icon making clear that the post has been revised.

Threads has also added what it called “Voice Threads”, which function as small audio posts. Users can press a record button and that will then make a playable audio file, which will also include captions.

The two new features are the latest changes from Meta to Instagram Threads, which was launched in an early version and has been updated rapidly ever since. Those have included a chronological feed and the ability to use the site on the web.