Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, has officially launched its new social media platform, Threads. This launch comes just three months after the company first confirmed its plans for the app. Threads is already making waves in the digital world, with 30 million sign-ups within the first day of its launch, including a significant number of brands, celebrities, journalists, and other prominent accounts.
Threads: A New Social Media Contender
Threads is designed to be a real-time conversation platform, similar to Twitter. It features a feed of largely text-based posts, although users can also post photos and videos. The platform imposes a 500-character limit on messages, and like Twitter, allows users to reply to, repost, and quote others’ posts. However, Threads also incorporates Instagram’s aesthetic and navigation system, offering the ability to share posts directly to Instagram Stories. Users can choose to make their Thread accounts public or private, and verified Instagram accounts are automatically verified on Threads.
Signing Up and Leaving Threads
Users can sign up for Threads using their Instagram accounts, keeping the same username, password, and account name. They can also import the list of accounts they follow directly from Instagram, making it easy to transition to the new platform. However, leaving Threads is not as straightforward. While users can temporarily deactivate their profiles, the only way to delete a Threads profile is by deleting the associated Instagram account.
Threads Availability
Threads is currently available in 100 countries and supports more than 30 languages. It can be accessed via Apple’s iOS and Android.
The Potential ‘Twitter Killer’
Threads is the latest in a series of platforms hoping to challenge Twitter’s dominance in real-time, public conversations. Given Meta’s existing scale and infrastructure, Threads may have the best shot at success. However, Meta will need to address issues such as spam, harassment, conspiracy theories, and false claims that have plagued Twitter and led to user dissatisfaction.
What’s in it for Meta?
For Meta, Threads could potentially increase engagement time among its massive existing user base. Although there are no ads on the platform yet, Threads could supplement Meta’s core advertising business in the future.
The Battle of Social Networks
Many Twitter users have been seeking an alternative since Elon Musk took over the platform in late 2022. Meta hopes to capture some of its more than 2 billion global active Instagram users with Threads, compared to Twitter’s active user base of around 250 million. In a recent Threads post, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg expressed his ambition for Threads to become a public conversations app with over 1 billion users.
Threads is Meta’s latest attempt to diversify its social media empire and challenge Twitter’s dominance in real-time conversations. Whether it will succeed in becoming the so-called ‘Twitter killer’ remains to be seen.
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