Just a few days after Twitter apllied tweet viewing restrictions to its users, Meta will launch its new app called “Threads”, a clone of Twitter based on Instagram.
It is expected to be available on the US App Store for download tomorrow. In the store, Threads bills itself as a text app “where communities come together to talk about everything from what’s important to you today to what’s hot tomorrow.”
Even though it’s a standalone app, Threads will be partially integrated with Instagram. In this way, users of the new social network will already have their existing audience coming from Instagram, and can also keep the same username on both platforms. Users of the social network created by Meta will be able to like, comment, repost and share text posts, similarly to the tools already available on Twitter.
What we previously knew
In June 8, Meta revealed to its employees a preview of the company’s new app to compete with Twitter. The app was shown off during an all-hands meeting by Chief Product Officer Chris Cox, who called it “our answer to Twitter.”
Below you can see some screenshots published by The Verge:
Amidst the growing unrest and discontent among Twitter users caused by Elon Musk’s Platform Changes, Meta saw an excellent opportunity to mark territory and further increase its monopoly by inserting a new competitor to Twitter in its portfolio of successes.
From Instagram straight to the “new Twitter”?
The app will be based on Instagram and integrated with ActivityPub, which will allow new users to bring their accounts and followers from the photo app to the new social network.
It is not yet clear how this integration will be carried out, but we already know that followers of an Instagram profile will be notified and invited to also follow in the new app, making it easier to build an audience. Furthermore, Threads will use Instagram’s account system to automatically fill in user information.
Integration with ActivityPub will also allow users who use apps integrated with the platform, such as Mastodon, to migrate their users to the future Meta app.
More details about Threads
According to what was published by The Verge, which had access to the Meta meeting documents, “P92”, which changed its launch name to “Threads”, will be a feed of text updates. Although the focus is on written content, users will also be able to add photos and videos of up to 5 minutes in in-stream messages, in the same way that Twitter works today.
There appear to be four tabs in the app which include main feed, explore, favorites, and your profile, with the middle button being a composer window for adding your own post.
In addition to this information, we know that:
- will use your Instagram credentials to log in;
- It will also use your Instagram ID as your username in the new app;
- The maximum length of posts will be 500 characters;
According to Cox, Meta is already in talks with a number of celebrities, such as Oprah and the Dalai Lama, to help raise awareness and use the app.
“We hear from creators and public figures that they are interested in having a platform that is run sensibly, that they believe they can trust and rely on to distribute,” said Cox, dropping a pretty direct hint at how Elon Musk leads twitter. He added that the company’s goal for the app is “security, ease of use, reliability” and ensuring creators have a “stable place to build and grow their audience”.
From the celebrities Meta is looking at to help promote their new app, you can see that Twitter’s new competitor is looking to attract a portion of the older audience that used Twitter in its “Golden time”, and is now very dissatisfied with the direction the application is taking.
We have every reason to hope that, with a new heavyweight competitor in sight, Twitter will be able to improve its management and listen more attentively to the wishes of its users, enabling it to once again reign upon the list of most popular apps.
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