The Facebook and Instagram owner brought forward the app’s launch was pushed ahead by 15 hours to 7 p.m. EDT in the US and midnight in the UK, making it freely available in 100 countries on the Apple and Google app stores, however regulatory issues mean it will not be available in the EU.
Billboard, HBO, NPR, and Netflix all had accounts set up within minutes of the service’s introduction. According to Meta, initial celebrity backers included Shakira and Gordon Ramsay, with a subsequent rumour claiming that Oprah Winfrey and the Dalai Lama had also been approached.
Threads will require Instagram account
Thread users will need an Instagram account to log in. Once they have signed up, they can choose to follow the same accounts they follow on Instagram, if they too have joined the new app.
The app closely resembles Twitter visually, although some of the wording has been changed, with retweets called “reposts” and tweets called “threads”. Meta has not been averse to copying rival products in the past, including the 2020 launch of Instagram’s Reels feature, noted for its similarity to TikTok’s short-form videos.
Posts on Threads
Posts on Threads can be 500 characters long, compared with 280 for most Twitter users, and videos of up to five minutes in length can be posted while a post can be shared as a link on other platforms. Users can unfollow, block, restrict or report others. Users can also filter out replies with certain words in them.
Meta has launched Threads in the aftermath of another contentious moment at Twitter, which imposed tweet viewing limits over the weekend, blaming the move in part on data collection by companies developing artificial intelligence algorithms.
Zuckerberg addressed these issues in future Threads postings. “I believe there should be a public conversations app with 1 billion or more users.” Twitter has had the opportunity to do so, but has failed to do so. “Hopefully so,” he wrote.
Reaction to the debut on Wednesday ranged from caution to enthusiasm, many praising its ease of use and some saying that Elon Musk should be worried. Others pointed out the app’s speedy integration with Instagram showed just how powerful Meta has become. Much of the conversation, ironically, took place on Twitter, where the hashtag “Threads” was trending on Wednesday evening.
News of Zuckerberg’s impending unveiling of Threads had resulted in the Facebook founder and Musk apparently agreeing to a cage fight over the matter, although a date has not been set for the unlikely confrontation.
New, separate space for real-time updates and public conversations
Meta described Threads as a “new, separate space for real-time updates and public conversations”, aiming to “take what Instagram does best and expand that to text, creating a positive and creative space to express your ideas”. Twitter has a user base of more than 250 million, while Instagram reportedly has 2 billion users.
Meta stated that the app would be similar to Twitter’s competitors, such as Mastodon, which is based on a decentralised network that allows accounts to be transferred to other sites. It stated, “We are working towards making Threads compatible with the open, interoperable social networks that we believe can shape the future of the internet.”
Meta announced plans to make Threads compatible with ActivityPub, the technology that supports Mastodon and allows social networks to communicate with one another, allowing Threads users to move their accounts and followers to other ActivityPub-supported apps.
Meta said users could stop using the Threads app and transfer their content to another service that uses the same underlying technology – such as Mastodon. “Our vision is that people using compatible apps will be able to follow and interact with people on Threads without having a Threads account, and vice versa, ushering in a new era of diverse and interconnected networks.” As with Mastodon, Meta envisages mini-communities forming with their own community standards and moderation policies.