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While Twitter announced unpopular new rules that would cap the number of tweets users can read each day, Instagram announced an alternative app, Threads, to be released Thursday.
The new Meta-owned platform, which bills itself as “Instagram’s text-based conversational app,” appeared on Apple’s App Store with no accompanying details other than a simple countdown website in its name.
Threads seems to share many functional similarities with Twitter. According to its App Store profile, it promises users the ability to “share your point of view” through text- or image-based posts called “threads” that people can react to, reply to, and share. Many of the app’s features appear to be tightly integrated with Instagram according to preview screenshots, giving users the option to log in using their Instagram handle, keep their username, and follow the same accounts.
“Whatever interests you, you can follow and connect directly with your favorite creators and others who love the same things,” Threads’ App Store listing reads. It also promised users the ability to “build a loyal following” and “share their ideas, opinions, and creativity with the world.”
In an email Tuesday, Meta declined to provide any further information about the app. But earlier this year, Meta said it was looking into creating a standalone text-based social media network where “creators and public figures could share timely updates about their interests.”
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Threads’ launch follows a series of announcements over the weekend from Elon Musk, who bought Twitter in October and limited the app’s functionality for many users. Last week he announced that the platform would temporarily limit the number of tweets that users could read per day, and presented a “temporary emergency measure” that prevented unregistered users from viewing tweets in the platform’s web browser. He said they should prevent third-party computer programs from browsing the platform for data. saying: “We have been plundered so much data that the service for ordinary users has been affected!”
On Monday, announced on Twitter Another change: Access to its TweetDeck platform — which gives users an enhanced interface for viewing multiple tweets at once — would soon be limited to paying users.
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Meta has also struggled with its own issues in recent months. Threads’ scheduled launch on Thursday comes as the company embarks on a large-scale downsizing effort, eliminating 21,000 jobs in the process, including teams dedicated to content moderation and policy and regulatory issues. Like other tech giants, Meta is facing an industry-wide downturn — and increasing competition from TikTok.
Monday night, Musk answered to a tweet about Meta’s posting of threads, quipping, “Thank god they’re run so sensibly.” So did he answered To posts It highlighted the long list of personal data that users, according to the app store profile, need to give Instagram access to use the app.
Meta and Twitter’s commercial battle for users is reflected in an increasingly public personal rivalry between the two men at their helm. Last month, Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg accepted a challenge from Musk to attend a cage fight at an arena in Las Vegas, after news on Meta’s competitor Twitter reported. It’s unclear if the fight — announced as Zuckerberg increasingly tries to seem more relevant to the tech elite — will actually happen.
Meta’s decision to start Threads puts Meta in competition with other companies that are also trying to lure users away from Twitter with alternative social networks.
Mastodon’s decentralized open-source model, founded seven years ago, saw a large influx of new users immediately after Musk’s takeover of Twitter. Bluesky, which also runs on a decentralized system, was created by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey and is currently in beta. Unlike Twitter, the platform says it wants to give users more control over their feed by allowing them to choose from a variety of recommendation algorithms to curate their experience.
Meta is no stranger to launching its own versions of innovations developed by competing apps – often with success. In 2016, Instagram copied Snapchat’s disappearing photos feature and launched Stories. an offer that has since become an integral part of the user experience. Four years later, Instagram introduced Reels, which allows users to create and share short vertical videos, just like TikTok.
Naomi Nix contributed to this report.
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