Instagram’s Threads app is about to launch on July 6 amid widespread opposition to Elon Musk’s Twitter network. Twitter’s tweet viewing limits have led users to switch to alternative platforms like BlueSky and Mastodon.
Thursday will witness the release of Threads, Meta’s response to Twitter, at a time when users of the Elon Musk-owned service are actively looking for substitutes.
Before its launch on Thursday, the Threads app is connected to Instagram and debuted on Tuesday in the Apple app store. For the release, Meta has started a website with a countdown.
Threads will be a place “where communities come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to what will be trending tomorrow,” according to a teaser of the “text-based conversation” app.
“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,” the promotional material claims.
According to screenshots, the users can sign in to Threads with their Instagram handle and follow their current contacts. The app’s user interface appears identical to Twitter’s, and it offers many of the same capabilities, such as the limit on who can comment on postings and repost and like content.
Though it was initially the name of a 2019 program Meta released to take on the youth-focused messaging service Snapchat, Threads is a suitable name for a Twitter rival.
A representative for Meta didn’t comment on the intended launch.
Meta will join a burgeoning field of platforms, such as BlueSky and Mastodon, vying to displace Twitter ever since Musk took over the social media network late last year. Musk has made Twitter more challenging for its alleged 250 million users.
Before last week, Twitter allowed visitors without Twitter accounts to access tweets. This week, visitors must check-in. It subsequently implemented a restriction, initially limiting unverified accounts to viewing 600 tweets per day but then increasing it to 1,000 for users who do not pay for the network.
Also, now only Twitter Blue users can access the list-based Tweetdeck platform.
The site’s growing instability and Musk’s moderating decisions as restoring prohibitions on far-right accounts have turned off advertisers, who have delayed or decreased investment in recent months.
Following the rate limit modification, BlueSky had to temporarily suspend new sign-ups, currently only available via invitation, to handle the demand.
According to The Verge, Chris Cox, chief product officer at Meta, stated during a company-wide meeting that there had been a demand for an alternative to Twitter “from creators and public figures who are interested in having a platform that is sanely run.”
Privacy is a concern that some users may have before joining Meta’s Twitter alternative.
The co-founder of Twitter and current employee on BlueSky, Jack Dorsey, tweeted a screenshot of the Threads app’s privacy information with the statement “All your Threads belong to us.”
The Threads app can gather information about your health, finances, contacts, browsing history, location, and transactions, among other things.
In contrast, BlueSky connects user content, contact details, and identifiers.
