Welcome To ‘Threads,’ Facebook’s Twitter Killer

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has launched Threads on the iOS App Store this afternoon—at least in Canada—and even leaked a bare-bones web version this morning. According to the official @threadsapp account on Threads, the service is now “rolling out publicly to people in more than 100 countries.”

That lets us take an advance look at the company’s answer to Elon Musk’s Twitter.

Meta’s pitch for the new social network: “say more” with Threads.

From the company’s App Store description:“Threads is where communities come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to what’ll be trending tomorrow. Whatever it is you’re interested in, you can follow and connect directly with your favorite creators and others who love the same things — or build a loyal following of your own to share your ideas, opinions and creativity with the world.”

Interestingly, Meta went with Instagram as a base social network for Threads versus Facebook. It’s not a great option for me personally (I barely use Instagram), but Instagram is a much more youth-focused, hip and growing property in the Meta portfolio. Early adopters will be able to keep their Instagram username and auto-follow the same people they follow on Instagram, solving the cold-start problem that every new social media platform suffers from at launch.

Threads offers liking via a heart symbol, commenting and re-threading (???), the Threads version of re-sharing or retweeting, via a sort of recycling symbol. There’s also the typical Instagram arrow to send a post to a specific person or group of people, or another social platform.

You can literally say more than default Twitter on Threads: 500 characters versus Twitter’s default 280.

Following is very simple: threads with replies from people you already follow will show up in your main Threads home feed, and their user icons appear with a little “+” sign. Tap it, and you’ll have the option to follow them right from your main feed. In addition, Threads from people you don’t follow do show up in your feed, at least on launch. This is another way to solve the cold start problem on the content side for a new social platform.

That said, Threads is launching with fairly minimal and basic functionality at first, including the ability to control viewability of your threads to anyone, only profiles you follow, or only people you’ve mentioned in the thread. Oddly, there’s no option to limit viewability to people who follow you (at least based on the screenshots Meta has shared so far). Also somewhat oddly: I am having to approve follow requests on threads, despite the fact that my profile is not set to “private.”

Direct messages are also not possible, unless you move over to Instagram. Threads does not yet have trending topics, like Twitter, or trending posts/images like Instagram does on the search tab.

Following an account on Threads does not mean you are following someone on Instagram, however. I followed @zuck on Threads, moved over to Instagram, and am not following Mark Zuckerberg there.

There are verified accounts on Threads, which seem to have been set up in advance. Being verified on Instagram does not mean you are necessarily verified on Threads however: I’m verified on IG but not on Threads. That’s a legacy verification, however. It’s likely that participants in the paid verification program, Meta Verified, get blue checkmarks automatically on Threads.

One thing that the internet has not missed is Threads’ extensive list of privacy disclosures: data that the app collects that Apple’s iOS App Store requires apps to share.

What is Instagram Threads?

Proulx described Threads, which is billed as an Instagram app, as “another copycat move” from Meta, which has sought to introduce other services in the past that mimic other standalone tech tools. They include Slingshot, an instant-messaging app, and IGTV, which was a video service from Instagram. 

In this case, Meta bills Threads as a place where you can “follow and connect directly with your favorite creators and others who love the same things.” In other words, sort of like Twitter, but perhaps with more focus on the creators and influencers who are popular on Instagram. 

The web version of Threads is currently set to pre-launch status after a quick blip of functionality. It shows a countdown to the actual launch, which should happen on July 6.

Whether the app will actually take off or not is an open question, but Meta does have the advantage of being able to import a friend graph on day one, fixing the cold start problem most startup social networking tools face. In addition, you’ll likely eventually be able to cross-post across Meta properties, much as you can from Instagram to Facebook now, which could help content.

Another key factor: whether Twitter can get its act together under its new CEO Linda Yaccarino, who has defended the network’s odd decision to rate-limit access to content.