Post to Threads

Reelspan publishes to Threads with Meta's Threads API. You send the post once; Reelspan creates the Threads media, waits for Threads to process it, publishes it and returns the permalink.

What you can post

Reelspan handles for you:

• Media by link. Threads fetches each photo and video itself from a signed link that stays valid for 6 hours.
• Mixed carousels. Videos sent in photos[] become video items of the carousel.
• Processing. Reelspan waits until Threads has processed the post (up to 10 minutes), then publishes it.
• Token refresh. Threads sign-ins last 60 days; Reelspan renews them while they are still valid, so you don't have to reconnect.

Connect the account

Threads connects with a Threads sign-in: in the dashboard go to Accounts → Threads, or send a white-label connect link. It is separate from the Instagram connection.

Example

A carousel with a topic tag, where only mentioned profiles can reply:

curl -X POST https://api.reelspan.com/v1/posts/photos \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $REELSPAN_API_KEY" \
  -F "user=my-brand" \
  -F "platform[]=threads" \
  -F "threads_title=Two shots from this morning's walk" \
  -F "threads_topic_tag=Photography" \
  -F "threads_reply_control=mentioned_only" \
  -F "photos[][email protected]" \
  -F "photos[][email protected]" \
  -F "alt_text[]=Fog over the harbour" \
  -F "alt_text[]=A heron on the pier"

import { Reelspan } from 'reelspan';
import { readFile } from 'node:fs/promises';

const reelspan = new Reelspan();
const post = await reelspan.posts.photos({
  user: 'my-brand',
  platforms: ['threads'],
  photos: [
    { data: await readFile('photo1.jpg'), name: 'photo1.jpg', type: 'image/jpeg' },
    { data: await readFile('photo2.jpg'), name: 'photo2.jpg', type: 'image/jpeg' },
  ],
  altTexts: ['Fog over the harbour', 'A heron on the pier'],
  extra: {
    threads_title: "Two shots from this morning's walk",
    threads_topic_tag: 'Photography',
    threads_reply_control: 'mentioned_only',
  },
});

from reelspan import Reelspan

reelspan = Reelspan()
post = reelspan.posts.photos(
    "my-brand", ["threads"], ["photo1.jpg", "photo2.jpg"],
    alt_texts=["Fog over the harbour", "A heron on the pier"],
    extra={
        "threads_title": "Two shots from this morning's walk",
        "threads_topic_tag": "Photography",
        "threads_reply_control": "mentioned_only",
    },
)

Fields

A poll on a video or photo post is left out with a warning, since Threads takes polls on text posts only. Fewer than 2 or more than 4 options fails the post with invalid_poll.

curl -X POST https://api.reelspan.com/v1/posts/text \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $REELSPAN_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "user": "my-brand",
    "platform": ["threads"],
    "title": "Coffee or tea while you work?",
    "threads_poll_options": ["Coffee", "Tea", "Neither"]
  }'

Limits

• Text: 500 characters. Longer text is cut, not threaded.
• Carousel: up to 20 items; with more, the first 20 are used and the result says so.
• Video size: your plan's upload limit (see Plans and limits).
• Shapes: 4:5 and 9:16 work best.

Good to know

• Result extras: container_id (the Threads media container).
• First comment: posted as a reply to the new post.
• Analytics: when your Reelspan workspace has Threads statistics turned on, the account's views, likes, replies, reposts and quotes over the last 30 days, and followers (Threads shares the follower count only for profiles with at least 100 followers); per post, views, likes, replies, reposts, quotes and shares. An account connected before statistics were turned on has to be reconnected.

After posting

• Repost a post (yours or any public one) from the account with Repost.
• Threads posts can't be deleted or edited through Reelspan: the Threads API doesn't allow edits, and deleting needs a permission Reelspan doesn't hold.
• Threads lets an account publish 250 posts and 1,000 replies in 24 hours. Publishing limits shows how much is left.

Errors