Threads, a new app launched by Meta, has entered the market as a Twitter competitor amidst significant changes led by Elon Musk. The app was made available in 100 countries on Thursday. Here is everything you need to know about Threads.
The standalone Threads app from tech company Meta was published on Thursday. The app’s functionality is based on Instagram’s account system and enables users to publish links, reply to or report messages, share text updates, and participate in group conversations.
Meta stated in a public statement that “Our vision with Threads is to take what Instagram does best and expand that to text, creating a positive and creative space to express your ideas.”
Users can connect and follow friends and creators, including those they follow on Instagram, much like they can on Instagram. For iOS and Android users, Threads has been released in more than 100 nations.
The software is released at a time when Elon Musk’s Twitter is having trouble turning a profit. Despite Musk’s statements that its company was “upswing,” media reports last month said that Twitter’s US advertising income in April fell by 59% from a year earlier.
Musk said that he selected NBCUniversal executive Linda Yaccarino to lead Twitter in an effort to “improve relationships with brands.”
The quantity of tweets that a user can access has recently been capped by Twitter. In the next days, only Twitter Blue subscribers will have access to the Twitter newsdeck.
News publishers, politicians, and other prominent people will compete for user attention on Meta’s Thread, which is perceived as a direct competitor to Twitter.
Key features
Users will see recommended content as well as topics posted by people they follow in their topics feed.
Links, images, and 5-minute movies can all be included in posts, which can have a maximum character count of 500.
One can share a Threads post on their Instagram story.
The article can also be shared on any other platform as a link.
Users have control over who can mention them in a thread or respond to them.
Users can add hidden words to the threads to filter off replies, just like on Instagram.
Any accounts that are barred from Instagram are also automatically barred from Threads.
Additionally, Meta stated that it would like to make Thread compatible with the ActivityPub protocol in the upcoming days.
By doing so, WordPress and Mastodon, two additional apps that implement the ActivityPub protocol, would be able to communicate with Threads.
The Menlo Park-based company said that in addition to working to make Threads compatible with the ActivityPub protocol, it would soon be introducing a number of new features to make it easier for users to find threads and creators who interest them. These features would include enhanced feed recommendations and a more robust search function that would make it simpler to follow topics and trends in real time.
