Threads: post types, limits, discovery and how to post
Threads is Meta's text feed with Instagram's audience attached. Video plays well there, carousels play well there, but the thing that gets recommended is a post people reply to. Here's what to post, the limits, and how a video operator uses a text platform.
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Platform facts checked against Meta's own help pages, August 2026.
Threads started as a text app and grew the media features later, which still shows: the feed is conversational, the reply is the currency, and a video with a sentence above it outperforms the same video alone. For a short-form operator it's the cheapest second life for everything you already wrote — hooks, scripts, captions.
Post types
| Type | On Threads | Through VidVertex |
|---|---|---|
| Text post | The native format, up to 500 characters | Yes — text stack, up to 10 images |
| Video post | Video with text above it | Yes — rendered per brand |
| Carousel | Several images or videos swiped in one post | Yes — image carousel |
| Story | Not a format | No |
| Polls, quotes, threads of posts | In-app | No |
Formats, lengths, limits
- Text: 500 characters per post; longer thoughts become a thread of replies to yourself.
- Video: up to 5 minutes; 9:16 plays full-height, 1:1 and 16:9 are fine too.
- Images: multiple per post; VidVertex sends up to 10 with a text post and the image list of a carousel stack.
- Links are allowed in the text and show as cards.
- Safe zones: video shows inline with little overlay; the full-screen view adds controls at the bottom — safe zones.
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How discovery works here
The For You feed recommends posts from accounts you don't follow, the Following feed is chronological. Recommendation weighs replies, quotes, reposts and profile visits heavily — Threads is Meta's most engagement-driven feed — alongside watch time for video. Posts can also surface on Instagram (Threads previews in the Instagram feed) and through search, which has improved with keyword search and trending topics.
Threads posts also surface inside the Instagram feed and in keyword search, so a linked Instagram account and a Threads account feed each other rather than competing.
The account-level rules are Meta's: the Account Status logic and the originality assessment apply, and a Threads account attached to an Instagram account shares its standing (platform messages decoded).
Monetization, as of August 2026
- No general monetization program. Meta has tested invite-only bonus programs for Threads; nothing you can plan a page on.
- The value is reach into an Instagram-adjacent audience and links: a Threads post can carry the link a Reel can't (views to product).
Typical mistakes
- Posting the video with no text. Same as X: the line is the post.
- Pasting the TikTok caption. Hashtag walls and emoji captions get nothing here; one topic tag at most, a claim or question instead.
- Ignoring replies. The feed rewards conversation; the first replies from you are part of the post.
- Expecting cold reach like Reels. Threads recommends, but follower and reply graphs matter more than on TikTok.
- Running Threads as a mirror of X. Same words work; the same behavior doesn't — Threads tolerates longer, softer posts.
How to post it
Don't run Threads as a mirror of X. The same words work; the same behaviour doesn't — Threads tolerates longer, softer posts and rewards the replies you write yourself.
In the app: compose, text up to 500 characters, attach video or images, post; reply to your own post to continue a thread.
With VidVertex: enable the Threads channel on the brand (brands & platforms). The video variant gets its own description (Threads has no separate title (post texts)); a text stack posts the words with up to ten images, a carousel stack posts the image list. The Zernio API posts all three directly; the Metricool modes hand the media over through your Google Drive — the API mode posts it, the CSV mode writes an import file (upload modes). Stories skip Threads and say so (post types).