After months of speculation, leaks, and even a public challenge between Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, Meta’s Twitter rival, Threads, has finally arrived. Mark Zuckerberg posted on Threads that there have been over 30 million signups so far, within less than 24 hours of its launch.
What is Threads? Threads is a platform that looks a lot like Twitter, with a feed of largely text-based posts of up to 500 characters and sharing photos and videos up to five minutes in length. The app’s interface features a clean design with options to like, comment, repost, and share threads. As Threads is closely integrated with Instagram, users can log in using their Instagram usernames and effortlessly follow the same people they do on the Instagram platform.
Like Instagram, Threads’ main feed presents a mix of recommended content and posts from followed users. Unlike Twitter, there doesn’t appear to be an option to switch between recommended and following-only content streams, but Meta may consider adding this feature.
Last week, Meta explained how AI influences your Facebook and Instagram feed content. Do you think they’d apply the same concept with Threads as well?
The trend of integrating features from popular platforms continues, with Instagram adopting Snapchat’s concept of stories and Reels challenging TikTok, both implemented on Instagram. Now, Twitter is the focus of Meta’s attention.
The release of Threads coincides with Twitter’s implementation of stricter limitations, including temporary rate limits that restrict unverified users from viewing more than 600 posts per day (or 300 posts for “new unverified” accounts). Twitter had initially blocked logged-out users from viewing tweets but later reversed this decision and introduced a new version of TweetDeck that requires a verified subscription.
In addition, Mark Zuckerberg tweeted for the first time in 13 years. Care to guess what?
— Mark Zuckerberg (@finkd) July 6, 2023
