After months of speculation and secrecy, Mark Zuckerberg’s long-rumored Twitter competitor is here.
The new app, Threads, was announced Wednesday as a sister app to Instagram, the popular photo-sharing network that Zuckerberg’s company Meta acquired more than a decade ago. Threads could replace rival Twitter if Instagram execs get their way, but some technologists have dubbed Threads the “Twitter killer.”
The Threads rollout intensifies the conflict between Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, who bought Twitter last year. Musk has altered the Twitter experience by tweaking its algorithms and other features, most recently imposing a temporary limit on the number of tweets that can be viewed while using the app, sparking outrage.
Many tech companies are trying to capitalize on Twitter’s chaos in recent months. But with Meta’s deep pockets and Instagram’s huge user base with over 2 billion monthly active users worldwide, Threads has the upper hand.
In a post on his Threads account on Wednesday, Zuckerberg hoped the new app would be “friendly as it grows,” but that’s not as successful as he believed it should be. “There was no,” he said. “We want to do it differently,” he said.
Here’s what you need to know about threads:
What are threads and how do they work?
Built by Instagram, Threads is positioned as an app that allows people to have real-time public conversations with each other. Threads also help revitalize Instagram, the flagship app in Meta’s family of products.
“We want to create an open and friendly space for our community,” Instagram head Adam Mosseri said in an interview.
Instagram ties Threads to itself. Anyone interested in signing up for the new app must have an Instagram account for now. The user’s Instagram handle must also be a Threads username.
It will also allow you to import the list of people you follow on Instagram directly into your threads if you prefer. Authenticated Instagram users will also be authenticated in the new app. A user can set their Threads account private or public.
How are threads similar to or different from Twitter?
Threads look much like Twitter in many ways. A user can post primarily text-based messages to her scrolling feed, which can be replied to by people who follow or follow the user. You can also post photos and videos to the app.
But Threads is also different from Twitter. Direct messaging, a feature provided by Twitter, is not currently supported. Instagram said it may add features to Threads if new users request it.
How did Instagram come up with threads?
Mosseri said Instagram has made a concerted effort over the past few years to simplify its app. As part of that effort, Threads was spun out as a separate app, he said. That way, Instagram won’t get cluttered trying to make public conversations work within their existing apps.
The choice to create a new app was also irresistible, especially during a tumultuous time in the social media landscape, Mosseri added.
“There was an opportunity and a demand for more people to play in public,” he said, referring to changes in Twitter under Mr. Musk. Mosseri added that the opportunity to challenge Twitter “came not just because of ownership, but because of the product changes and decisions that Musk and others have made regarding how the social platform works.”
Instagram launched an effort to take on Twitter late last year, with dozens of engineers, product managers and designers brainstorming what the rival app might look like. Among the concepts discussed by Meta employees at the time were a feature called Instagram Notes, which allows people to share short messages on the site, and a broader rollout of text-centric apps powered by Instagram’s technology. rice field.
Ultimately, Mosseri said he and other managers decided it was time to “gamble” in this area and were committed to building what would become Threads.
How does Threads work with other apps?
Instagram’s goal is ultimately to make threads work across multiple apps in something called Fediverse, short for Federated Universe of services that share a communication protocol. Other apps like Mastodon, another social network, work this way as well.
This may sound like a lot of technical talk. What this means, in essence, is that Instagram wants her Threads to work seamlessly with other platforms. This may appeal to creators and influencers to not have to start each app from scratch.
For example, if a creator gets a decent number of followers on a thread, they can take those followers to other platforms ostensibly built on the same technology. Mosseri said that would reduce risk for creators and free them from feeling “stuck” on one platform.
Did Instagram clone other apps?
Zuckerberg’s Meta, which also owns Facebook and WhatsApp, has an extensive history of trying to outmaneuver its social media rivals, including copying some of their features. Mr. Zuckerberg is highly competitive and has long wanted to own a product that does what Twitter does.
That strategy does not necessarily guarantee success. For example, Facebook’s early attempts to clone the ephemeral messaging app Snapchat didn’t get much attention at first.
Yet Meta has continued to imitate its rivals. In 2020, Meta released a TikTok mimetic service called Reels that focused on short videos and has since become widely used.
Where are Threads available?
Threads will be available for free download from Apple’s App Store and Google Play Store in the US and nearly 100 other countries starting Wednesday. There are plans to expand further.
But Mehta said Threads will initially not be available in the European Union, one of the company’s biggest markets. A new EU law, called the Digital Markets Act, will come into force in the next few months, restricting how the biggest tech companies can share data between services. Meta said it was waiting for more detailed information on the enforcement of the law before rolling out threads across the 27 countries.
Adam Sataliano contributed to the report.
