How to hide Threads replies based on specific words

Oh, so you've decided to plunge yourself into the hellscape of yet another social media platform, have you? Well, because the internet, you're going to need to know how to hide replies.

On Thursday, Meta launched its Twitter rival, Threads — an app linked to Instagram that allows users to post threaded text updates which can be liked, shared, and replied to (you know, exactly like Twitter).

SEE ALSO: How to sign up to Threads

The app is very much in its infancy, but it is a social media app (and according to Mark Zuckerberg, a rapidly growing one), which means it's only a matter of time before the trolls show up. When they do, it's worth knowing how to protect yourself.

How to hide replies on Threads

If you've posted a Thread but want to have some control over the replies, you can tweak your Settings in order to manage this.

Total Time

• 2 mins

What You Need

• Phone
• Threads app from iOS or Android

Step 1: Open "Setttings"

First, click on your profile page in Threads and tap the Settings icon in the top-right corner (the two little horizontal lines).

Credit: Threads

Step 2: Tap "Privacy".

It's located halfway down the Settings page.

Credit: Threads

Step 3: Tap "Hidden words".

There are plenty of useful options in the Privacy page worth knowing about, including muting accounts and making your own account private instead of public. But the one you want to tap on now is marked "Hidden words".

Credit: Threads

Step 4: Manage custom words

Finally, you can scroll down and toggle "Custom words and phrases" to On, then tap "Manage custom words and phrases". In the box on the next page, just type in the words you don't wan't to see, separating them with a comma.

Credit: Threads

It's worth noting that this feature, though useful, isn't new. Instagram has allowed users to flag "Hidden words" via its privacy settings since 2021, and Twitter also has advanced muting options.

Wondering how to make your Threads feed chronological, meanwhile? We have a guide for that too.

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Threads is trying to entice people from Instagram using badges

Have you started seeing weird little numbers popping up on people's Instagram profiles? Well, that'll be Threads.

Meta's Twitter competitor app that launched today in the U.S. and UK is automatically placing badges on the Instagram profiles of users who have signed up. The badges show the Threads logo next to a number, which basically indicates how quick you were to join the app after it launched, while allowing Meta a major swipe at Twitter following the whole blue tick saga.

Credit: Mashable/Sam Haysom

If you tap on your own badge, you'll be greeted with a cheery message saying what "No." person you were to join the app. You can then tap to view your Threads profile or "Hide badge", although tapping on the latter will bring up an "Are you sure?" pop-up informing you that "You can't add it back to your profile once you've removed it."

SEE ALSO: Twitter competitor Threads won't let you delete your account unless you also delete Instagram

Tapping on a badge on someone else's profile, meanwhile, takes you directly to their Threads page.

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So what's the point of the badges? Well, honestly there isn't much point. Meta is likely using the badges as a marketing tool to try and generate FOMO and catch the attention of Instagram users so that they can drive more people to their new platform.

One note of caution, though: If you do sign up to Threads through iOS or Android and later want to delete it, you won't be able to without also deleting your Instagram account.

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Twitter walks back some login requirements

It seems that Twitter is already walking back some of the unpopular decisions it made over the past few days.

On Wednesday, Twitter users began noticing that some content was once again accessible to visitors who were not logged in to an account.

SEE ALSO: Twitter now blocks visitors from viewing tweets, and profiles unless they're logged in

Mashable has tested out multiple different Twitter links and found visitors can access a specific tweet with direct links to that post. Clicking on a profile will also bring visitors to a user's page and their bio and follower and following count will all be visible. 

Users have also reported that tweet links are once again showing content embeds on messaging platforms like Slack and Apple's Messages app. Mashable was also able to access the Explore page with trending topics by clicking on it in the sidebar on a tweet page.

However, there's still a lot of content blocked for visitors unless they're logged in to a registered Twitter account. Visitors cannot directly access any profile page or the Explore page by simply going to the URL in their web browser unless they log in.

In addition, tweet links accessed by visitors who aren't logged in will only show that tweet. Visitors still cannot view any replies to that tweet unless they log in. 

SEE ALSO: Let's face it, Twitter is not a free app anymore

Furthermore, if the tweet a visitor opens is a reply to another tweet or one tweet in a longer thread, none of those other tweets will show up. So, if a visitor opens up a tweet reply while logged out, they won't have any context as to what the user was replying to.

Even accessing Twitter's homepage at Twitter.com forwards visitors directly to the login page that appears when trying to access pages that are blocked for individuals who aren't logged in to a Twitter account.

As Mashable previously reported, Twitter made the decision to lock out visitors who aren't logged in to an account on the Friday before the July 4th weekend. At the time, Twitter owner Elon Musk said it was to stop web scrapers and platform manipulation, but the move was roundly criticized by users.

SEE ALSO: Twitter will soon make you pay for TweetDeck

However, Musk and company didn't stop there. On Saturday, Twitter made the decision to limit the number of tweets even logged-in users are able to view per day. Users who pay for Twitter Blue were allotted a larger number of tweets that they could access. Then on Monday, Twitter launched a new, more limited version of TweetDeck, its app for power users. The company also announced that in 30 days, TweetDeck would be limited to Twitter Blue subscribers only.

Musk announced that each of these limitations were only "temporary" (minus the TweetDeck announcement). Twitter had already expanded the number of tweets users could see over the weekend, but still kept the limits in place.

Now, Twitter is allowing visitors who aren't logged in to see more content as well. The decision to roll that limitation back before the others likely has to do with a few things. For one, Meta is about to launch its Twitter competitor, Threads. In addition, in blocking visitors, Twitter was also locking out search engines from indexing their content. As Search Engine Land pointed out, the number of Twitter pages now accessible by Google search dropped 62 percent over the last few days, which likely also hurt Twitter's traffic as well.

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Reddit's API protest just got even more NSFW

The protest being waged by popular subreddits over Reddit's API changes continues, and this week it's taken a NSFW twist.

On Monday, r/pics — a massive community with over 30 million members — officially marked itself NSFW (not safe for work), meaning Reddit is no longer able to show advertisements alongside posts appearing in the subreddit.

SEE ALSO: Reddit bids farewell to third-party apps like Apollo, BaconReader

It's the latest iteration of a protest that started in mid-June, when 6,500 subreddits took part in a blackout to protest Reddit's plans to charge for API (application programming interface) access. Redditors are angry about the Twitter-like changes, which have now led to third-party apps like Apollo — which couldn't afford the fees — having to shut down.

Since the blackout, a number of large subreddits have continued to protest Reddit's changes in a variety of creative ways. r/pics opted to go down a very John Oliver-focused route, first only allowing images of the comedian and Last Week Tonight host to be shared on the sub and then amending their own rules so that any media featuring Oliver – including erotic fan fiction – could be posted.

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A week ago, r/pics moderators shared a post discussing the level of profanity in the sub, reminding the community — via a very tongue in cheek "open letter" — not to swear in their posts, lest the mods be forced to mark the community NSFW and thus deprive Reddit of advertising revenue.

"Now we really, really don't want to mark r/pics as being NSFW," reads the post. "Doing so would mean that we were no longer discoverable, that we would no longer show up in Reddit's main feeds, and that millions of people would be deprived of John Oliver's presence on their screens. It would also have the effect of keeping Reddit from showing advertisements alongside our posts, which we feel would be unfair."

The wording of this post is key, as Reddit has reportedly stepped in previously to remove mods for marking their communities NSFW as a form of protest. "r/pics will not be made NSFW as a form of protest," reads the post in r/pics. "Any such change will be enacted in order to comply with Reddit's policies. If Reddit were to remove moderators from r/pics, that action would go against their own publicly affirmed guidelines."

All of this led to the subreddit officially being marked NSFW on Monday. Elsewhere, other Reddit communities are continuing to protest in their own ways. r/videos is currently only allowing posts that contain texts describing a video, while r/funny has an open letter to Reddit pinned at the top of the sub.

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Threads Meta's Twitter clone is arriving very soon

Meta's been hard at work on their version of Twitter. And surprise! That app, named Threads, is landing this week. On Thursday Jul. 6, to be precise.

Threads is currently available for "pre-saving" on the Apple App Store and is showing up for at least some users in the Google Play Store in Europe. The screenshots in the App Store preview look a lot like a Twitter interface, showing a "thread" (post) with a heart (like), speech bubble (reply), two-arrow loop (repost to your own feed) and paper plane (share elsewhere/directly) icons as well as like and reply counters. There's also a preview of a reply-limiting function that divides the potential audience for an individual "New thread" into Anyone, "Profiles you follow", and "Mentioned only".

SEE ALSO: The solution to Twitter's downfall isn't five Twitter clones

Most crucially, the app is connected directly to Instagram. Not only does the App Store page list its name as "Threads, an Instagram app" (not Meta, not Facebook, Instagram, OK?) but users will be able to log in using their Instagram credentials and handle and choose who to follow on Threads from the list of the people they already follow on Instagram. According to earlier reports on the app — formerly known only by the codename "Project 92" — it will have a centralized main feed, and users who are already blocked on Instagram will remain blocked by those accounts on the new platform. Meta has also apparently been working to get high-profile users on board for launch.

It may be the ideal solution for devoted but alienated Twitter users who can't get their heads around Mastodon, are still waiting for a Bluesky invite code, or can't face the idea of rebuilding their entire network of followers and follows from scratch on any new platform.

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Meta's building anticipation in other ways, too. As the New York Times' Mike Isaac demonstrates in the below video, typing "threads" into the (notoriously hit-and-miss) Instagram search page brings up a ticket emoji, which you can tap to generate your own personal... countdown ticket thing, clearly showing that we're T-minus two days and change to launch.

Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab)

It's a little thematically confused, but the message is clear: Meta is throwing everything at their "Twitter killer" app. And the timing couldn't be better.

The tease comes on the same day that Twitter revealed — buried in a newsy list of updates — that its widely beloved power-user app TweetDeck will be behind a big Blue paywall in a month. A significant number of the power users and professionals who are devoted to TweetDeck would likely have paid $8 a month a year ago to help support the continued provision of a service that made their experience on the platform vastly better and easier; far fewer will accept the multi-layered insult of paying money to a platform that works less well, sides consistently with fascists at an executive level, and is flooding increasingly hostile user feeds with more and worse ads, on top of the scarlet letter that a Blue check badge has become in the post-verification era.

Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab)

Musk may have achieved something that this time last year still seemed impossible: making Meta look prescient, and sending swathes of Twitter's user base into Zuck's waiting arms.

And he's already offering a preview of how he's taking this potentially very real threat to his already-endangered bottom line. Thanks to Apple's upfront guide in the App Store, you get a clear list of the information Threads will receive about you, which in true Meta fashion is quite a bit. Seen gloating about it on Twitter on Monday evening were the two people who can arguably be held responsible for us needing a Twitter replacement in the first place.

Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab)

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Reddit bids farewell to third-party apps like Apollo BaconReader

Despite Reddit users' protests, Reddit has moved forward with its decision to charge developers of third-party apps millions of dollars to access its API (application programming interface). As of July 1, several beloved apps are no more.

SEE ALSO: Reddit removes mods as subreddits continue protesting unpopular API changes

Which third-party Reddit apps have shut down?

One of the most popular third-party apps to shut down is Apollo. According to Apollo developer Christian Selig, he would have had to pay Reddit $20 million a year for API access (Reddit planned to charge $12,000 per 50 million API requests).

In a Reddit post thanking users before Apollo's shutdown, Selig wrote: "If [Reddit] wanted something that could work for everyone, they would have simply made an effort to listen, instead of being dishonest, callous, and punitive in pricing." Many of the comments on the post say they will delete their accounts and no longer use Reddit now that Apollo is gone.

The Android equivalent of Apollo, reddit is fun (RIF), has also shut down. RIF's farewell post agreed with Selig's, and criticized Reddit's "hostile treatment of developers building on their platform."

Other apps that have shut down in the wake of Reddit's API policy include BaconReader, which released its last update on Android on June 27, and Sync for Reddit, which will be migrating to possible Reddit alternative Lemmy.

Which third-party Reddit apps will remain operational?

Several third-party Reddit apps will remain usable, but both will come at a price in order to offset Reddit's API charges. However, Reddit's API restriction of NSFW content will still apply to any of the third-party apps that remain available when the changes take effect on July 5.

Relay for Reddit will continue operations and remain free for now. However, its developer DBrady stated in a Reddit post that Relay will be moving to a subscription model in the coming weeks, although they will attempt to "hit as low a price point as possible." As of now, DBRady says the pro version of Relay will be available for free until a subscription model is released.

Narwhal for Reddit will also be sticking around and moving to a subscription model. Developer Rick Harrison confirmed in a post that the app will function in the same way, albeit without ads, and cost between $4 and $7. Miloco, developer of Now for Reddit, made a similar announcement about Now for Reddit and gesture-based Nara for Reddit moving to subscriptions, although there are yet to be any updates on prices.

As first reported by The Verge, Reddit did announce it would exempt accessibility-focused apps from the new pricing policy. TechCrunch reported that users of the subreddit r/Blind went on to assemble a list of apps that aid with Reddit's accessibility, such as screen readers like Reddit for Blind, Luna for Reddit, and Dystopia. Dystopia announced in a post that it would continue operating for free.

RedReader also received an accessibility exemption, although mods of r/Blind have mentioned that they are having significant trouble signing in. Other apps on r/Blind's list included the now-gone BaconReader and Apollo, which worked with most iOS accessibility technology.

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Rate limit explained: Why is Elon Musk restricting how many tweets you can see?

Another day, another problem on Elon Musk's Twitter.

On July 1, Musk tweeted that he would be imposing "temporary limits" on how many tweets users can view in a day. The limits were meant to address "extreme levels of data scraping and system manipulation." These measures came just one day after Twitter began blocking visitors from viewing the site without being logged in, something Musk claimed was a "temporary emergency measure" to prevent data pillaging.

SEE ALSO: Twitter now blocks visitors from viewing tweets, and profiles unless they're logged in

What is Twitter's rate limit?

As Musk's new constraints went into effect, users were greeted by messages that they had exceeded their rate limit for the day and that they could no longer see tweets. When first announced, verified users could view 6,000 posts, unverified accounts could view 600, and new unverified accounts could view 300. The limits have since been increased to 10,000, 1,000, and 500 posts, respectively.

Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab)

Musk may have cited data scraping as the primary reason for imposing the rate limits, but according to Yoel Roth, Twitter's former head of trust and safety, that reasoning wasn't quite adding up. As first reported by Insider, Roth wrote in a thread on Twitter alternative Bluesky that "it just doesn't pass the sniff test that scraping all of a sudden created such dramatic performance problems that Twitter had no choice but to put everything behind a login."

According to Roth, this isn't even the first time Musk's Twitter crashed because of fiddling with the site's rate limiter. "There's a reason the limiter was one of the most locked down internal tools," he wrote. "Futzing with rate limits is probably the easiest way to break Twitter."

Data scraping aside, there may have been another reason for the measure: a bug. As reported by Waxy, web developer Simon Chang posted on Mastodon that he'd noticed a Twitter bug that is creating an infinite loop of requests:

This is hilarious. It appears that Twitter is DDOSing itself.

The Twitter home feed’s been down for most of this morning. Even though nothing loads, the Twitter website never stops trying and trying.

In the first video, notice the error message that I’m being rate limited. Then notice the jiggling scrollbar on the right.

The second video shows why it’s jiggling. Twitter is firing off about 10 requests a second to itself to try and fetch content that never arrives because Elon’s latest genius innovation is to block people from being able to read Twitter without logging in.

This likely created some hellish conditions that the engineers never envisioned and so we get this comedy of errors resulting in the most epic of self-owns, the self-DDOS.

Unbelievable. It’s amateur hour.

How can you get around Twitter's rate limit?

If you want to get around Twitter's rate limit, you can use log into your account on Tweetdeck on a desktop or mobile browser, although it is designed to work best on a desktop. As of July 2, my own feed and notifications were working without a hitch on Tweetdeck, although some Twitter users are already reporting issues with their experience, so your mileage may vary.

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