‘I am glad you are here on the first day. Let’s build something great together’ with this post, Mark Zuckerberg, owner and CEO of Meta, officially started the ‘life’ of the new app Threads. The app, which has been presented as a ‘friendly’ rival to Twitter, has gathered ten million users in the first seven hours, according to Zuckerberg’s claims.
The app is available for download in over 100 countries, including the United Kingdom. However, the option to download is currently not available for users within the European Union as the app is not yet available in the region, according to the BBC.
Experts say that Threads could attract Twitter users, especially those dissatisfied with the changes on the platform since it was taken over by Elon Musk. Zuckerberg himself does not hide that he wants to take over Twitter’s role as an app where people are open to free discussions and sharing information and opinions. ‘It will take some time, but I think there should be an app for public conversations with over a billion people on it. Twitter had the opportunity to do this, but it failed. I hope we will succeed,’ Zuckerberg stated in his post.
How does Threads work?
Threads allows users to post up to 500 characters and has many features similar to Twitter. Meta emphasizes that this is just the initial version of the app, and plans to include interaction capabilities with people on other apps.
– Our vision with Threads is to take what Instagram does best and expand it to text – Meta highlighted before the launch, according to the BBC.
Although Threads is a standalone app, users log in using their Instagram accounts. Their Instagram username remains on the new app, but there is an option to customize their profile specifically for Threads. Users will also be able to choose to follow the same accounts they follow on Instagram. The app allows users to be private on Instagram but public on Threads.
Posts can be shared simultaneously with Instagram and include links, photos, and videos lasting up to five minutes. Unfollowing, blocking, limiting, or reporting other profiles is also possible, and all accounts that users block on Instagram are automatically blocked on Threads.
Criticism of the app
One of the criticisms directed at the new app, as is often the case with Meta, is that the app collects too much user data – from health, financial data, and similar information related to users’ identities. However, this is not unusual as last year whistleblower Frances Haugen stated that the company put ‘profit before safety’ and criticized how the platforms were moderated.
The company was also shaken by a scandal in which it allowed third parties, including the British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, access to Facebook users’ personal data.
There are already several alternatives to Twitter available, such as Bluesky and Mastodon, but they have struggled to gain popularity. At the same time, Threads has a significant advantage as it is connected to Instagram and hundreds of millions of users who are already on that platform. So now it remains to be seen what success Meta can achieve with the new app.
