MILLIONS rushed to join Mark Zuckerberg's new social network Threads in July. But many appear to have got bored with the Twitter / X rival already.

Deletion feature in the works

Users who decided they wanted completely out were shocked to discover they can't delete their Threads account. At least, not without taking your Instagram account with it. The only way you can currently purge your Threads account entirely is by deleting your Instagram account as well.

"Your Threads profile is part of your Instagram account, and may be deleted at any time by deleting your Instagram account," Meta's guide reads. Understandably, the news didn't go down too well with users.

Months on from the launch, Meta’s chief privacy officer for product, Michel Protti, has revealed that things may finally change.

According to TechCrunch, he said that a full deletion feature for Threads accounts should arrive in December.

"Technically, it was extremely challenging to allow deletion of a separate Threads account without also deleting your overall Instagram account out of the gate," he explained. "So we paid particular attention to ensuring the user could still exercise their deletion rights, by deactivating the account to sort of hide all content, setting it to private or deleting individual threads."

How to delete my Threads account

For now, the only way you can delete your Threads account is by deleting your Instagram account as well. If you're absolutely certain you want to get rid of both, go to your Instagram profile and tap the three line icon in the top right. Select Settings and privacy. Then go to Account Centre. Tap on Personal details, followed by Account ownership and control. Go to Deactivation or deletion. Select your Instagram account. Tick the Delete account option, then tap the Continue button.

How to deactivate my Threads account

Although you can't delete your Threads account on its own, you can deactivate it instead. Open the Threads app and go to your Profile page. Tap the two line icon in the top right. Go to Account. Select Deactivate profile. And confirm by tapping the Deactivate Threads profile button at the bottom.