Thread: what you need to know about Twitter’s big rival

Mark Zuckerberg announced on Thursday the launch of a new product by Meta, one developed by the Instagram team. He said its aims “…to take the best parts of Instagram and create a new experience for text, ideas and discussing what is on your mind”. But little did we know he meant a new rival to Twitter was born but just four hours after its launch, the app clocked over 4 million downloads. Impressive? Hold on, the app got over 30 million downloads less than 24 hours after its launch. That is the real impressive.

Twitter has since threatened a lawsuit against Meta claiming the company used trade secrets to develop the app. As to whether they will follow through with the threats and whether it will even result in anything significant we await to see but for now, let’s see what Threads bring on board.

What makes Threads the biggest threat to Twitter?

Threads description says “Threads is where communities come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to what’ll be trending tomorrow. Whatever it is you’re interested in, you can follow and connect directly with your favourite 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”. That is nearly exactly what Twitter offers, discuss anything you want, follow any topic and get live updates about other people’s opinions, Tweets. You can follow others for information or build a following for yourself and share your opinions with them.

But that is not all, with Twitter, one is limited to just 280 characters for those who have not subscribed to Twitter Blue. You can share text, videos, images and links but videos are limited to just 2 minutes and 20 seconds except if you are a Blue subscriber. Threads offer more with a character length of 500 and a video length of 5 minutes.

Thread offers delete capability just like Twitter but has no edit feature just also like the default Twitter option. There are no options to direct message people, view trending stories and post hashtags. You cannot also delete your Threads profile without deleting your Instagram account. So if you don’t want to use the app again and want to keep your Instagram account, you need to only deactivate your Threads account.

Twitter owner Elon Musk had said in reaction to Threads’ launch that “It is infinitely preferable to be attacked by strangers on Twitter than indulge in the false happiness of hide-the-pain Instagram”. That was supported by Twitter’s CEO Linda Yaccarino stating that Twitter is “…often imitated but the Twitter community can never be duplicated”.

How do I signup for Threads?

Signing up for Threads is one easy thing to do except you don’t have an Instagram account but if you do, then you have got it already. Simply use your Instagram account to log in and then customize it to meet your liking. Your Instagram username and verification will carry over. That means you will be able to see posts from people you follow on Instagram if they have joined Threads. They too will see your posts. You can choose to follow those same accounts you followed on Instagram or add new ones who share similar interests with you.

How about safety and Ease of Use?

Safety they say begins with you and you must take your own safety seriously. However, Threads coming from Meta offer some level of confidence. One safety feature the app has to protect minors is that persons under 16 years or 18 in some areas who sign up for Threads would be defaulted to private. Meaning their accounts would be private and not available for all to see. Individuals also have the option to make their profiles public or private.

According to a news article by Meta ahead of the app’s launch, Threads have some of Instagram’s top features such as screen reader support and AI-generated image description. Users have the option to decide who mentions them or replies to their threads and also use keywords to filter out replies. Content on Threads can easily be shared as Instagram stories or links to other platforms.