No, you don't have to delete Instagram if you don't want to Thread

WASHINGTON — Tens of millions of people have already downloaded Threads, the buzzy new social media account Meta launched Wednesday night. Will it replace Twitter? Will it remain a “friendly” “space for conversation,” as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has shared he wants it to be? We’ll have to see–but if you’re ready to jump ship already, will it cost you more than one social media account?

THE QUESTION:

Does deleting Threads require deleting Instagram?

THE SOURCE:

THE ANSWER:

While you would need to delete Instagram to scrub your Threads data completely, it is possible to make a Threads profile inactive and hidden without canceling Instagram.

WHAT WE FOUND:

Maybe you logged on right away because your heart and thumbs have been aching for an alternative social media platform, and it’s just a little too chaotic for you—or maybe you just activated your account because you wanted a peek, but now you want out.

Some early posts on Threads warned—if you delete your Threads account, you lose your Instagram account too.

Threads is its own app but part of the Instagram platform–right now, you can only create an account using your Instagram handle. To test out “un-threading,” we made a separate Instagram handle and launched a connected Threads account. 

Then we clicked through settings to “deactivate,” which prompts a screen informing this deactivation is “temporary,” hiding the profile and activity until the user logs back in–where the user will find the account as it was left. The message on screen notes it won’t affect Instagram.

We tested it, and it’s true—we could still post pics on the test Instagram, while searching for this test Threads account comes up dry. 

Clicking through app settings is where you find the explanation that got people worried. 

If a user wants to totally delete my profile–leave no trace of it–that does require deleting Instagram. You can also go through and delete Thread posts one-by-one and simply have a blank Threads page.

The head of Instagram even addressed these concerns in a Thread post, pointing all this out.

So, once you’ve activated Threads, you can’t pull it offline entirely without canceling your Instagram too—but you can opt out of the Threads feature by simply “deactivating” your profile and never going back.