Threads glossary: what the features, metrics and slang mean

About this Threads glossary

Feature names follow Meta's English interface, so an entry uses the same word you see on the button or screen. Most facts come from Meta itself: the Help Center, the newsroom at about.fb.com, the Threads API documentation, and posts by @threads and by Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram. Where Meta has published nothing, as with the 75-day scheduling window, the entry names the press source instead. Slang has no official source, so those entries describe how the word is used, including on this site.

The glossary is written for people who use Threads for work: creators, freelancers and small businesses. Some features only run in a few places so far. Dear Algo and Your Algo work in five English-speaking countries, only people in the US can receive a Gem, and fediverse sharing is off in the European Region. We checked every entry against its source in October 2026.

Threads terms from A to Z

The terms are in alphabetical order. Each one has its own anchor, so you can link straight to it, for example /guides/threads-glossary/#restrict.

Account Status

Account Status is the Threads screen that lists posts Meta removed, content it can't recommend and features you can't use, and lets you request a review. The Help Center puts it under Profile > Menu > Account Status (Help Center); @threads pointed to Settings > Account > Account status (@threads, May 2025). More →

Character limit

Character limit is the 500-character cap on the main text of a Threads post. Meta's API documentation counts each emoji as its number of UTF-8 bytes, so posts full of emoji hit the cap sooner through the API (Meta for Developers). More →

Community

A community is an official topic space on Threads with its own feed, member list and custom Like emoji. Communities grow out of popular topic tags, and Meta reviews a topic before it becomes one (Help Center). More →

Community champion

Community champion is a badge for members who post and reply often in a community and are followed by other members. It shows on their profile and next to their posts in that community (Help Center).

Dear Algo

Dear Algo is a public post addressed to the algorithm: you tag "Dear algo" at the start, say what you want more or less of, and your For You feed shifts for three days. It launched in English only in February 2026; the @threads launch post named the US, Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand, while Meta's newsroom left out Canada (@threads, Meta). More →

Drafts

Drafts are posts you started and saved without publishing. A draft stays where you saved it, so one saved on threads.com doesn't show up in the app, and the reverse (Help Center).

Engagement bait

Engagement bait is a post written to collect reactions rather than start a conversation, like "comment GUIDE and I'll DM it." Meta's spam policy bans like/share-gating: requiring likes, follows or other public engagement to unlock exclusive content (Meta). More →

Engagement rate

Engagement rate is interactions divided by views (or by followers), times 100. For a single Threads post that's (likes + replies + reposts + quotes) ÷ views × 100; Insights shows the inputs, but not the rate itself. More →

Fediverse sharing

Fediverse sharing is an opt-in setting that also publishes your Threads posts to other servers such as Mastodon, where people can follow and reply to you. You can turn it on if you created your Threads profile with an Instagram account, are 18 or older, have a public profile and are outside the European Region (Help Center).

Following feed

Following is the Threads feed that shows only profiles you follow, newest first, with no recommended posts (Meta system card). You switch between it and For You at the top of Home (Help Center).

For You feed

For You is the Threads home feed that Meta ranks for each person: posts from accounts you follow mixed with recommended ones, sorted by predictions of whether you'll like, reply, tap or scroll past (Help Center, Meta system card). More →

Gems

A Gem is a label Threads picks automatically once a day for public posts and replies that started or carried a standout conversation. Anyone can see Gems, but for now only posts and replies from people in the US can get one (Help Center).

Ghost post

A ghost post is a text-only Threads post that is archived after 24 hours. Replies can go to your messages instead of under the post, and only you see who liked it (Meta, October 2025).

Hidden Words

Hidden Words is a filter that moves replies with offensive, misleading or spammy words into a Hidden replies section at the bottom of your thread, where others can still open them. It's on by default, and you can add custom filters (Help Center).

Insights

Insights are the free analytics Threads gives you for your own account: views, viewers, follows and interactions for each post and the profile, plus audience data, over periods of 7 to 90 days (Help Center, Meta). More →

Link limit

Link limit is the cap of five unique links per Threads post; since December 22, 2025, posts with more fail to publish through Meta's API (Meta for Developers). Your bio can hold up to five links as well (Meta). More →

Mention

A mention is an @username inside a post or reply, typed with no space after the @ (Help Center). The person you mention gets a notification in Activity (Help Center).

Mute

Mute is a setting that removes someone's threads and replies from your feed while you keep following them. The person isn't told (Help Center).

Not interested

Not interested is the option in a post's three-dot menu that tells Threads you want to see less of that kind of post (@threads). If you tap it by mistake, Undo is right there (@threads).

Pinned post

A pinned post is the one post you fix to the top of the Threads tab on your profile. You can also pin one reply to the top of a thread you started (Help Center).

Quote post

A quote post is a new post of yours with someone else's thread embedded in it (Help Center). Authors can limit who may quote them to profiles they follow or to people they mention (Help Center).

Recommendation eligibility

Recommendation eligibility is whether Meta may show your content to people who don't follow you. Threads lists posts it can't recommend in Account Status, and for Instagram Meta says ineligible content still reaches followers (Instagram Help). More →

Reply

A reply is a post you publish under someone else's post. It also appears as its own thread in the Replies tab of your profile, and if your profile is public, anyone on or off Threads can read it (Help Center). More →

Reply approvals

Reply approvals is a per-post setting that holds new replies as pending until the author approves them, so nobody else sees them before that. Authors turn it on under Reply options > Review and approve replies (Help Center).

Reply guy

Reply guy is slang for someone who replies to everything, often unwanted. As a growth tactic it means replying early and usefully in your niche, which matches Adam Mosseri's advice to "reply much more than you post" (Platformer). More →

Repost

A repost is someone else's thread shared to your profile unchanged: it appears there and in feed as a reposted thread, with nothing added by you (Help Center).

Restrict

Restrict is a quiet limit on one profile: you stop getting notifications about their activity, their replies to you may be hidden or need your approval, and their messages move to requests. They aren't told (Help Center).

Roll call

A roll call is a post that asks a group, such as small business owners, to show what they do in the replies, usually with the author going first. In Replyvero's October 2026 study, English roll calls took off most often: 22 of 34. More →

Scheduled post

A scheduled post is one you set from the composer's three-dot menu to publish at a chosen date and time; until then it waits in drafts (@threads). The Verge reported a 75-day limit and no scheduled replies (The Verge). More →

Shadowban

Shadowban is the informal name for limits that cut your reach without a notice. Meta avoids the word, but Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, has said Meta does limit reach in recommendations in some cases (Mosseri); on Threads those limits appear in Account Status. More →

Spoiler

A spoiler is text or an image you blur by selecting it in the composer and tapping Mark spoiler; readers tap to reveal it. Mosseri announced the test in June 2025 (Mosseri).

Text attachment

A text attachment is up to 10,000 characters of extra text added to a Threads post and read inside the app (Meta, September 2025). The API allows it only on text-only posts, with one link and styling like bold (Meta for Developers).

Thread

A thread is anything you post on Threads; a multi-part thread is a chain of connected posts built with Add to thread or by replying to yourself (Help Center, @threads). Each part has its own 500-character limit. More →

Top sources of views

Top sources of views is the part of post Insights that splits a post's views by where they happened, each as a percentage. The Help Center lists Home, Profile, Activity and Search (Help Center); a July 2025 @threads post adds Instagram and Facebook (@threads). More →

Topic tag

A topic tag is the single topic label a Threads post can carry, up to 50 characters, with or without a # (Help Center). Meta says posts with a topic generally receive more views (Meta). More →

Typical views

Typical views are the baseline Threads uses for your posts: the median views of your last 10 posts. The Views over time chart in post Insights compares each new post with it (Help Center). More →

Unconnected reach

Unconnected reach is how many people who don't follow you see your posts; connected reach is the same count for followers. Adam Mosseri used both terms in November 2024, when Threads shifted ranking toward followed accounts (Mosseri). More →

Views and viewers

Views are every time a post was shown, to followers and non-followers, repeats included; viewers are the unique profiles that saw it at least once (Help Center). Meta labels some of these metrics as estimated. More →

Your Algo

Your Algo is a private request to see more or less of a topic for one, three or seven days; unlike Dear Algo, only you see it. It rolled out in June 2026 in the US, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand (Meta).

Which terms matter most for growth?

Reply, For You, unconnected reach and Account Status explain most of what happens to your reach. A reply puts your name under a post people are already reading, For You is where strangers can come across your posts, and unconnected reach counts those strangers. Account Status shows whether a limit is keeping you out of recommendations.

The Threads algorithm guide explains why replies carry so much weight in ranking.

Replying well every day is the slow part. Replyvero, a Chrome extension for replying on Threads, finds posts in your niche and drafts short replies. By default each draft waits for you to edit, skip or send it, and an optional autopilot sends replies without approval. Threads' Terms of Use (§3(a)(iv)) restrict automated access, so any automation carries a risk of restrictions at any pace; Replyvero's caps of 10 replies an hour and 100 a day lower that risk without removing it. Plans start with a free one-hour trial.

Where to read more

The Threads algorithm guide goes through the ranking signals Meta lists for the For You feed. For the numbers, the Threads insights guide explains each metric and view source. If your reach fell all at once, the Threads shadowban guide shows how to read Account Status and request a review. The data behind roll calls and the other selling formats is in our study of selling posts on Threads.