The company that owns Instagram, Meta, launched a new app called Threads on Wednesday. Threads is a text-based conversation app that could compete with Twitter. You can sign in with the same username, friends, and proof status that you have on Instagram.
Even though the platform has been in the works since January, the launch of Meta’s Threads comes right after Elon Musk said that you can only read so many tweets per day.
Due to all the changes on Twitter, some social media users may be looking for an option, such as Mastodon or Bluesky. Threads lets you post text, videos, and pictures, and it also lets you have real-time chats.
Mark Zuckerberg, who is the CEO of Meta, said in a post on Threads on Wednesday that more than 2 million people had signed up for the app in its first two hours. He said later that the app had gotten “10 million sign-ups in seven hours.”
Continue reading to learn how to join Meta’s Threads and what features are offered.
What is Threads by Meta?
Threads is a platform that was made by Meta’s Instagram team. It lets you share small posts or updates of up to 500 characters. You can add links, photos, or movies that are no longer than 5 minutes. The app is tied to your Instagram account, and Meta says that you can “easily share a Threads post to your Instagram story, or share your post as a link on any other platform you choose.”
Threads can be downloaded for free from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store.
How to use Threads
To join Threads, you must have an Instagram account, as the site needs you to sign in with your Instagram login information. Once you set up your account, your Instagram username will be transferred over. You can also make a profile that you can customise, but Meta says that UK users younger than 18 will get a private profile by default.
You can follow the same accounts on Threads that you follow on Instagram with just a few clicks. This means you don’t have to start from scratch. When you make a post or “Thread,” you can choose who can see it. It could be the whole world, or it could just be your friends.
People who use Twitter and Instagram may be glad to hear that you can avoid, report, block, or limit a page. You can get to it by using the drop-down button with the three dots. Anyone you’ve blocked on Instagram will also be blocked on Threads. Other benefits include support for screen readers and picture captions made by AI.
Meta says it is trying to make Threads work with other apps that use the ActivityPub interface, like WordPress and Mastodon, and to make them work together. The company hopes that in the future, anyone with a suitable app, even if they don’t have a Meta’s Threads account, will be able to read Threads posts.
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Meta’s Threads vs. Twitter
The competition between the two tech giants goes beyond the idea of a wrestling match between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. With Meta’s Threads’ built-in link to Instagram, it can be easy to get people in a short amount of time. Musk changed Twitter’s limit so that confirmed users can post up to 10,000 times a day, unverified users can post up to 1,000 times a day, and new unverified users can post up to 500 times a day. This change could cause customers and marketers to leave Twitter.
But the new Threads site also has some people who don’t like it. Forrester expert Mike Proulx says that Meta is taking advantage of the current wave of unhappiness with Twitter and that the company has tried and failed to launch and shut down Threads before.
There have apparently been delays in the introduction of Threads in the European Union owing to concerns around the sharing of data between the two applications.