After months of rumors, leaks, and a billionaire cage fight challenge between Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, Threads, the Meta-created Twitter rival, has officially launched. Now, you may use the iOS and Android apps or the desktop version of Threads.net to access the new platform. (Try forcing the App Store to close and then reopen it if you’re having trouble seeing it on iOS or receiving an error.)
Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri stated, “Obviously, Twitter pioneered the space… but just given everything that was going on, we thought there was an opportunity to build something that was open and something that was good for the community that was already using Instagram,” in an interview about the Threads launch with The Verge’s Alex Heath.
You can contribute pictures and videos that are up to five minutes long as well as text postings with up to 500 characters on Threads. The program has a basic UI with the ability to like, comment, repost, and share threads, and it has a style that is somewhat reminiscent of Twitter. Because Threads and Instagram are closely related, you can quickly follow all the same users on both platforms by logging in with your Instagram account.
Similar to Instagram, Threads’ main feed combines suggested material with updates from your followers. Although it doesn’t appear like there is a similar option as there is on Twitter to swap between streams of stuff that is recommended and following-only, Meta might potentially implement it in the future.
Some of Instagram’s privacy features, like the ability to filter out specific terms in answers, are now being extended to Threads by Meta. You may also choose whether you want everyone on the site, only the individuals you follow, or just the users you specifically mention in your post to be able to comment to your posts.
At launch, Meta does not have Threads support for ActivityPub. Your information could be moved from Threads to another server, among other things, thanks to the decentralized social networking protocol used by Mastodon as well.
In the future of online platforms, “we think this decentralized approach, similar to the protocols governing email and the web itself, will play a key role,” adds Meta. “Threads is Meta’s first app designed to work with an open social networking protocol; we hope that by integrating with this rapidly expanding ecosystem of interoperable services, Threads will help people find their community, regardless of the app they use.”
The introduction of Threads coincides with Twitter tightening its user policies. One such restriction prevents unverified users from accessing more than 600 posts per day (or 300 posts for “new unverified” accounts). Additionally, Twitter prevented users who were not logged in from accessing tweets on the network before secretly undoing the move and introducing a new TweetDeck that needed a verified subscription.
Threads is being introduced by Meta in more than 100 countries, including the US, but it won’t initially be accessible there.
Some of the laws that go into force next year present major compliance challenges. We don’t want to debut something that won’t be compatible with what we already know and what we anticipate will happen in the future. Simply put, it will require more time to ensure not only that it is compliant but also that any claims we make about how we have implemented compliance are able to withstand internal testing and our extremely strict internal documentation standards.