Threads web version arrives – but it’s still missing key features

Happy person with a laptop on their lap
(Image credit: Prostock-studio / Shutterstock)

Threads now has a web version, to the relief of many who want to use the service on a desktop PC – although be warned that the web take doesn’t have the full functionality as seen with the mobile app (yet).

The Threads web app is rolling out as of now, and as TechCrunch reports, it allows you to make a post, interact with other posts, and view your feed, all from within Chrome (or whichever of the best web browsers you prefer).

Sadly, important features are still missing from the web portal. For example, there’s no way to edit the user profile, or send a post over to DMs (direct messages) on Instagram (as you can on the mobile client).

However, more features will be included with Threads on the web going forward, we’re told, and presumably the latter ability will be one of them (profile editing surely will be).


Analysis: A big piece of the user engagement puzzle

It was rumored that the Threads web version would launch this week, and that turned out to be right – it’s great to see it arrive. While technically Threads existed as a site before, it basically didn’t let you do anything, so if you wanted to, well, achieve something as simple as posting, you had to hop on your mobile to do that.

Now, you can make a post on your desktop PC, as well as interacting with other people’s posts as mentioned. That should help stem some of the losses Threads has been experiencing of late, giving more interaction for the service as folks working on their PC take a break and check out posts.

You may recall that when Threads first launched, it quickly notched up a whole ton of users – a good many of whom have fallen by the wayside since. We’ve already talked about how a proper desktop offering, rather than having only a mobile app, could be a big piece of the puzzle to turn things around for Threads. We’ll soon enough see the reality of that theory…

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Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - 'I Know What You Did Last Supper' - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).