Everything to Know About “Threads”, Instagram’s Twitter competitor
In this post, you will find everything you need to know about Threads. As you may have already heard, Twitter officially has a brand new competitor. Meta’s official new launch, Threads, has got people talking. Meta, Facebook’s parent company, unveiled Threads, a Twitter competitor, just three months after disclosing its plans for the app.
“Threads” is off to a fast start, with 100 million sign-ups in less than a week, according to the app, including a huge number of corporations, celebrities, journalists, and other prominent profiles. Early adopters flocked to test out Threads and make their first posts on the day it was released, reminiscent of the first day of school. Some even speculated that the new app may topple Twitter.
Would Threads be a threat to Twitter?
Threads might pose a serious threat to Twitter, which has faced widespread criticism since Elon Musk took over the platform in October 2022 and has run it on the fly. However, Twitter has grown particularly vulnerable in recent days, infuriating users with a temporary limit on the amount of content users may read every day. “Threads” might help Meta build its empire of popular apps while also providing a new platform for ad sales.
What is Threads?
Let’s first discuss what “Threads” is. Basically, it is a brand new application introduced by Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram’s parent corporation, Meta. The network functions similarly to Twitter, with a stream of largely textual updates and real-time chat between users.
According to its description in the App Store, Threads is a platform for communities to come together and talk about everything, from the topics you care about right now to what’ll be trending the next day. Whatever users are interested in, they may follow and connect directly with the creators they enjoy and those who are interested in similar topics, or they may build a loyal following to share their opinions, ideas, and creativity with the world.
What does Meta state about Threads?
Meta stated that messages sent to Threads will be limited to 500 characters. Just like on Twitter, users have the ability to repost and quote others’ “Threads” posts. However, the app incorporates Instagram’s existing design and navigation mechanisms, as well as the ability to share Threads content directly to Instagram Stories.
Additionally, Threads accounts may be listed as private or public. Threads automatically verifies verified Instagram accounts. Although it has a close link with Instagram, Threads will be independent from it. From the App Store listing alone, we don’t have much information, but it appears that users can like, comment on, repost, and share posts. You can choose whether everyone, only those mentioned in the post, or people you follow will have the chance to respond to your own posts.
Is Threads going to succeed?
There are some doubts about the success of Threads. As you may know, Meta’s most recent side projects haven’t been hits. In recent years, it has discontinued programs such as tbh, the anonymous adolescent app, Super, the Nextdoor clone Neighborhoods, Tuned, the couples app, Campus, the video dating service Sparked, and others. Threads, on the other hand, is launching at the ideal time to capitalize on Twitter’s continuous hiccups. Consumers must decide whether they want Meta to control yet another aspect of their social media experience.
Adam Mosseri says Twitter’s “volatility” and “unpredictability” under Musk provided an opportunity to compete. Threads, Meta’s self-described “sanely operated” version of Twitter, has been in the works for a while. Especially the criticism towards Musk’s new restriction on how many tweets individuals may read each day was a catalyst for getting the app out the door this soon. They further claim that Meta anticipates “tens of millions” of people trying Threads within the first few months of its release.
Meta has simplified the processes
Threads, however, don’t underestimate Twitter either. Mosseri sees Threads as a “risky undertaking,” especially since it is new software that users must download. Meta has simplified the onboarding process by allowing you to auto-populate your account information and follower list from Instagram.
Threads must also cope with the fact that Twitter has been around for a long time and has built up a unique network that is difficult, if not impossible, to reproduce. Despite Musk’s controversial decisions related to Twitter in recent months, Meta clearly understands that dethroning Twitter will be quite a challenge. Because Twitter has a long history and a very robust and lively community, the network effects are extremely powerful.
How does ‘Threads’ work?
In many respects, Threads is comparable to Twitter. The primary feed of the app displays posts- “Threads”- from accounts you follow as well as accounts selected by Instagram’s algorithm. You can respond to something by reposting it with your own thoughts, and responses are prominently shown in the main feed of the app. There is no feed of only people you follow, though this may come in the future. Thread posts can be up to 500 characters long and include up to five-minute-long videos.
There are no advertisements, at least for the time being; introducing them will be a “champagne problem” if Threads develops sufficient scale, according to Mosseri. There is also no paid verification process to access further functionality, though Instagram blue checks will transfer over to Threads accounts.
Because Threads and Instagram have such a close relationship, you can effortlessly share Threads posts to your Instagram feed or story. Mosseri predicts that the ability to share links to Threads articles in other apps will be useful as “we try to bootstrap it out of nothing.” This week, Meta has been busy onboarding celebrities from the realms of Hollywood, music, professional sports, business, and other fields to Threads ahead of its public debut. Ellie Goulding, Karlie Kloss, Dana White, Tony Robbins, Gordon Ramsay, Russell Wilson, and Jack Black have all started using this app.
Is ‘Threads’ available in your country?
Threads will be available in 100 countries at first, including the United States, but not in the European Union. According to Mosseri, it is being kept out of the EU for the time being due to “complications with complying with certain of the legislation that will take effect in the upcoming year. That almost certainly refers to the Digital Markets Act, which imposes a slew of new legal requirements on “gatekeeper” platforms like Meta.
Threads and ActivityPub
Meta intends to integrate Threads with ActivityPub, the decentralized social media platform that underpins Mastodon. However, as previously stated, such integration will not be ready for launch. Threads users who activate it will be able to engage with Mastodon users and transfer their accounts to other clients that implement the ActivityPub standard.
How can you sign up for Threads?
Users sign up using their Instagram accounts and use the same login, password, and account name, but they can edit their bio to be more Thread-specific. You can easily get started using the app by immediately transferring the list of profiles you follow from Instagram.
Can you leave Threads?
So can you actually leave it once you make an account? Well, leaving Threads is not going to be as easy as making the profile. While users can temporarily deactivate their profiles using the app’s settings, the firm states in its privacy policy that the only way to delete your profile is by deleting your Instagram account.
There are also concerns arising regarding the amount of data that Threads, like Instagram, collects about its users. According to the Apple App Store, Threads collects data such as your location, search history, contacts, browsing history, and more.
Could Threads dethrone Twitter?
This is the most recent platform to launch with the aim of dethroning Twitter as the go-to tool for real-time, public chats. Nevertheless, it may have a good chance of success. You may know that a lot of Twitter users have been complaining about the way things are going with Twitter ever since Elon Musk took over the platform. Frequent technical troubles and policy changes have caused some notable Twitter users to leave the platform.
Meta has one big advantage over Twitter: the magnitude of its existing user base. Meta expects that the new app will catch at least some of the more than 2 billion active Instagram users worldwide. Twitter’s active user base can be around 250 million people.
“I think there should be a public chat app with 1 billion people on it,” Zuckerberg stated in a Threads post. “Twitter had the opportunity to achieve this but didn’t nail it.”
Twitter’s lawyer wrote to Meta, alleging intellectual property infringement and threatening a lawsuit over Threads. Meta reacted angrily to the charges. In a statement on Thursday, Twitter’s new CEO, Linda Yaccarino, seemed to acknowledge the brand new competing app’s introduction, calling Twitter “irreplaceable. The statement explained that although Twitter can be mimicked, the Twitter community cannot be recreated.
Meta’s existing scale and infrastructure
Meta’s existing scale and infrastructure could work in its favor. Whereas several of Twitter’s recent competitors forced users to join waitlists or acquire invitations to sign up, only to have to work to recreate their network on the new site, Threads made it astonishingly easy for users to get started.
However, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri stated in a video on the platform that the issue for new social media networks is typically not attracting users to sign up but rather keeping them interested over time. Meta, in particular, will have to try to avoid spam, harassment, conspiracy theories, and misleading claims on Threads, all of which have turned off many Twitter users.
The debut of the new platform comes after Meta laid off over 20,000 employees beginning in November, including those in user experience, well-being, policy, and risk analytics. It also comes as the campaign season for the 2024 US Presidential election heats up, with some experts predicting a flood of misinformation. Threads, like other Meta apps, will be subject to Meta’s Community Guidelines.
What else is in it for Meta?
The app could be a method for Meta to eke out more interaction time from its large existing user base. Although there are currently no advertisements on the site, Threads might eventually enhance Meta’s primary advertising income. Although, based on Twitter’s track record, the format is unlikely to generate as much ad revenue as Meta’s other platforms, Meta’s ad revenue may be in need of a boost after suffering from a general downturn in the internet ad market and revisions to Apple’s app privacy requirements.
The main appeal for Zuckerberg, though, may be competing against his competitor, Musk, with whom he has been planning a cage battle in recent weeks. Winning the fight on social networks may be even better.
What’s next for Threads?
Despite its early success, Threads is still rather basic software. Many features of Twitter, such as a desktop version, instant chat, trending topics, and the ability to edit postings, remain unavailable. Meta authorities, on the other hand, have already hinted at plans to expand the app. In recent Threads posts, Mosseri has mentioned that the service is planning on introducing hashtags, a more extensive search feature, a feed of only accounts a user follows, and possibly direct chat. Visit our blog for similar posts.