Meta is working to stop deleted Threads accounts from nuking Instagram too

So, you signed up for a Threads account, because you wanted to see what the fuss was about with Meta's Twitter rival. If you decide that the new social network isn't for you or if you want to start fresh, deleting your Threads profile may not be the way to go — as The Verge notes, doing so will also erase your entire Instagram account. When you open a Threads account, you can use your Instagram credentials to sign up if you want to bring over your profile and your circles from the photo-sharing app. But by doing so, your accounts on both platforms become inextricably linked.

In a post on Threads, Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, said Meta is aware of the issue and is currently looking for a way to allow you to delete your Threads account separately. The company is also working on features that are still missing from the app, including the following tab, hashtags, fediverse support and messaging. For now, you can deactivate your Threads account to hide your profile and content. You can also set your profile to private or simply just delete individual threads. To note, you can also sign up for a Threads account with an email or a phone number not linked to your Instagram account, so you can keep your profiles on the two platforms separate. Still, you won't be able to delete Threads without logging into Instagram first.

Meta couldn't have launched Threads at a better time. Twitter recently made changes that frustrated even the most avid users. It first prevented people who aren't logged in from seeing tweets — though it quietly backtracked on requiring users to log in — and then put a strict cap on how many posts users can see per day. Around 10 million users signed up for a Threads account within its first seven hours, and in the first morning after it became available, the app already had 30 million users. Shortly after Threads launched, Twitter threatened to sue Meta, accusing it of poaching former employees and misappropriating trade secrets and intellectual property. In a response to a tweet about the potential lawsuit, Elon Musk replied: "Competition is fine, cheating is not."