For several months now, Meta has been experimenting with letting users cross-post from Instagram and Facebook to Threads, a social networking platform that competes with X (formerly known as Twitter), and Meta confirmed to TechCrunch that the feature has officially rolled out globally to all countries where Threads is available.
The new crossposting feature is part of the company's larger goal to make the most of the content users share across its family of apps. Meta has offered the feature on Instagram and Facebook for years, allowing users active on both platforms to share Facebook posts to Instagram and vice versa. The company also experimented with crossposting in 2023, automatically showing suggested threaded posts on Instagram and Facebook (the option can be turned off).
Connecting Threads more closely to Meta's larger app ecosystem and billions of users could further strengthen the Threads app, which recently surpassed 200 million active users.
How to crosspost an Instagram image into a thread
Image credit: Instagram iOS app screenshot via TechCrunch
Instagram's new crossposting feature, which first became available as a test in early May, is an opt-in experience, requiring users to turn on the threaded sharing button when posting an image. When a user crossposts an Instagram post, the caption becomes the text of the threaded post, and hashtags are converted to plain text.
Users can choose to use the crosspost option just once or set auto-share to always crosspost to Threads. This feature is available to all users globally on iOS and Android devices. However, there is no option to crosspost Instagram Reels to Threads.
How to cross-post a thread post to Facebook
Image credit: Facebook iOS app screenshot via TechCrunch
The Threads crossposting test began rolling out to Facebook users in late February. Just like you can turn on the option for crossposting on Instagram, there's a new Threads option you can enable when you're typing a post. At the top, next to options like “Only Me” and “Add Album,” you'll see the Threads logo and it should say “On” or “Off.”
This feature only applies to text and link posts, not videos. This feature is available on Android, iOS, and in all countries where Threads is available.
What is the purpose of cross-posting?
The ability to cross-post from Instagram and Facebook to Threads simplifies the posting process for content creators, social media managers, and business owners, saving them valuable time and effort. Instead of creating different content for each platform, you can reach multiple audiences simultaneously with the same post.
However, it's important to consider whether posting the same content on multiple platforms is the right strategy for a particular post, as it may not translate well. For example, an Instagram post with lots of hashtags may look strange on Threads, as it appears as plain text. Threads has tags, but does not use the hash symbol.