After announcing its ambitions for the app only three months ago, Facebook-parent Meta formally released Threads on Wednesday.
As of Thursday morning, 30 million people had downloaded Threads, according to the business, including a significant number of corporations, celebrities, journalists, and other well-known accounts.
Intent on Threads Early adopters rushed to test out the app and publish their first posts on Wednesday night, making it seem a little like the first day of class. Some questioned if the app may wind up becoming the “Twitter killer.” As of Thursday morning, Threads was both the most popular trending subject on Twitter and the top free app in the Apple App Store.
Threads may be a major danger to Twitter, which has been under fire ever since Elon Musk assumed control of the service in October 2022 and has operated it in a seat-of-your-pants manner. But Twitter has just exposed itself, upsetting users over a temporary cap on the amount of material they may access each day. Additionally, Threads might help Meta grow its empire of well-known applications and provide it a new ad-supported platform.
What is currently known about Meta’s Threads is as follows:
Threads: What is it?
The parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp has a new app called Threads. The network resembles Twitter in that it features a stream of mostly text updates, while users may also upload photographs and videos and engage in real-time chats.
A 500-character restriction will apply to posts submitted to Threads, according to Meta. Users may respond to, repost, and quote other people’s messages on Threads, much as on Twitter. The software also allows users to share content from Threads straight to Instagram Stories and integrates Instagram’s current UI and functionality.
Additionally, thread accounts may be labelled as private or public. Threads automatically verifies genuine Instagram accounts.
Following the debut, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, said in a Threads article, “The vision for Threads is to create an option and a friendly public space for conversation.” We want to build a new experience around words, ideas, and talking about what’s on your mind, using what Instagram does best.
In the early hours of Threads’ release, some users did encounter a few bugs and problems loading material, but this is to be anticipated when millions of people are simultaneously logging in and utilising the programme.
How does one register? (And could you leave?)
Users may alter their bio to make it specific to Threads after signing up via their Instagram accounts, keeping their login, password, and account name the same. The list of profiles that users follow can also be imported straight from Instagram, making it very simple for users to start using the programme.
But leaving Threads is not nearly that simple. However, the firm states in its privacy policy that “your Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting your Instagram account.” Users may temporarily deactivate their accounts through the app’s settings section. According to the Apple App Store, several users have expressed worry over the amount of data that Threads, like Instagram, may gather on users, including location, contacts, search history, browser history, contact information, and more.
Where can I get Threads?
According to the firm, Threads is accessible on Apple’s iOS and Android platforms in more than 30 languages and 100 countries.
‘Twitter killer’: Could Threads be the case?
In an effort to dethrone Twitter as the preferred tool for in-the-moment, public talks, Threads is just the most recent platform to be introduced in recent months. However, it could have the best chance of succeeding.
Since Musk took over the social media network late last year, many Twitter users have voiced a desire for an alternative. Some notable Twitter users have left the service due to frequent technical problems and policy changes.
Twitter has at least one major advantage over Meta: the magnitude of its current user base. With the new app, Meta hopes to attract at least some of the more than 2 billion active Instagram users worldwide. In comparison, there are around 250 million active users on Twitter.
Zuckerberg said on Threads, “I think there should be a public conversation app with 1 billion+ people on it. It’ll take some time.” Twitter has had the chance to achieve this, but it hasn’t succeeded. I think we will.
The debut of the competing app seemed to be acknowledged by Twitter’s new CEO, Linda Yaccarino, in a message on Thursday, when she referred to Twitter as “irreplaceable.”
The Twitter community, she continued, “can never be duplicated, even though we’re frequently imitated.”
The scale and infrastructure already in place at Meta might work in its favour. Threads makes it astonishingly simple for users to get started, in contrast to many of the other Twitter rivals launched in recent months that forced users to join waitlists or acquire invites in order to sign up and then needed them to struggle to rebuild their network on the new site.
The issue for new social media platforms, according to Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri, is often not persuading people to join up, but rather keeping them interested over time.
In particular, Meta will need to endeavour to stop the problems that have sent many users away from Twitter, including spam, abuse, conspiracy theories, and misleading claims on Threads. The introduction of the new platform follows Meta’s termination of more than 20,000 employees, including those working in the fields of risk analytics, policy, and user experience, beginning in November of last year. It also occurs as the 2024 US Presidential election campaign season heats up, with some analysts predicting a surge in false information. As with its other applications, Threads will be subject to Meta’s Community Guidelines.
What else does Meta get out of it?
Threads may be a method for Meta to increase user engagement among its sizable base of current users.
Although there are now no advertisements on the site, Threads may eventually help to complement Meta’s primary advertising revenue. Although the format is unlikely to draw as much ad revenue as Meta’s other platforms, Meta’s ad business may need a lift after suffering difficulties from a general drop in the internet ad market and revisions to Apple’s app privacy policies.
But for Zuckerberg, the main appeal may be in trying to defeat his opponent, Musk, with whom he has been preparing for a cage battle in recent weeks. Winning the war on social networks could be even better.
