Meta’s Threads app has attracted a significant amount of attention, with 100 million users signing up to the service in its first five days after launch.

But if you’re considering jumping on the bandwagon, there are a few things you should be aware of before joining Threads.

1. Your Threads and Instagram Accounts Are Linked

One of the biggest drawbacks to Threads is that you cannot delete your account without also deleting your Instagram account. This has to do with the way that Threads has been built as an extension of the Instagram platform.

While you can deactivate your Threads account, be prepared to say goodbye to your Instagram account if you want to opt for full account deletion on Threads.

There is some good news though. Instagram head Adam Mosseri said in a Threads post that the company is “looking into a way to delete your Threads account separately”.

It would also attract more users to not require Instagram to sign up for a Threads account. But as it stands, you need to have an existing Instagram account to sign up for Threads.

2. You’ll Be Granting Meta a License to Your Content

Meta notes in its Threads Terms of Use that by posting on the service, you grant it a license to use and sub-license your content.

The policy states:

“If you upload or share any Threads Content, you hereby grant us a non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license to host, use, distribute, modify, run, copy, publicly perform or display, translate and create derivative works of your Threads Content (in accordance with the Privacy Policy and Threads Supplemental Privacy Policy).”

This license only ends when that content is deleted from the Threads servers.

Some other social media platforms also obtain a license to use your content when you use their service, so Threads isn’t the only one. However, it is something to be aware of, especially if you use the service for professional purposes.

Not only does Meta access a significant amount of your data when you use the Threads app, but this data is shared between Meta services as well as with third parties.

According to the Threads Supplemental Privacy Policy, this data will be used for platform functionality and optimization, but also for other purposes such as advertising.

“We use the information we collect for Threads for the purposes described in the Meta Privacy Policy, including to provide, personalize, and improve Threads and other Meta Products (including seamless personalization of your experience across Threads and Instagram), to provide measurement, analytics and other business services (including ads), to promote safety, integrity and security, to communicate with you, and to research and innovate for social good.”

If you don’t trust Meta to handle this data correctly, then you may want to avoid Threads altogether.

4. Threads Still Lacks Many Features

Threads’ launch has coincided with some unpopular changes at Twitter, including Twitter’s decision to limit how many posts users can see in a day. But in the rush to seize the moment, Threads is still in somewhat early stages of development.

Threads needs additional features to become a true Twitter competitor, as it lacks certain functionality such as hashtags and DMs. These aren’t only features that you find on Twitter, but also features that Instagram has.

Mosseri has noted that the Threads team is working on additional features, including a Following feed (which lets you only view posts from accounts you’re following) and fediverse compatibility.

Mosseri said in a Threads post: “…There are tons of basics that are missing: search, hashtags, a following feed, graph syncing, fedeverse [sic] support, messaging maybe…We’re on it. The (amazing) team is cranking away. But full disclosure, it’ll take time.”

If these features are essential to you, you may want to wait before signing up to Threads.

Threads Is a Work-in-Progress

Before you sign up for Threads, it’s important to be aware of the platform’s limitations. Decide whether any of these factors are dealbreakers. For some people, these considerations may stop them from joining Threads at all.