Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, is expected to launch a new app named ‘Threads’ on 6th July. It appears to be a competitor of Twitter. An early listing of the app has made its way to the App Store.
In the launch date teaser on Instagram, Meta mentioned the date of the launch as 6th July at 10 AM ET. The spinning ticket that is shown in the ticket also includes a teaser that takes to threads.net, which appears to be the web portal of the new social media app. On the website, it shows a countdown for the launch date.
— Alex Heath (@alexeheath) July 4, 2023
As per the official description of the app on the App Store, it reads, “Say more with Threads — Instagram’s text-based conversation app.
Threads are 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.”
The listing on both App Store and Google Play Store have similar screenshots showing how an Instagram handle can be used to login into Threads. You can find accounts you follow on Instagram on the new platform and publish posts in an interface similar to Twitter, Bluesky and Mastodon, which are text-focused social media apps.
Reportedly, the meeting last month where Meta executives shared that Instagram Threads would integrate with the decentralized social media protocol that is used by Mastodon is the same meeting that sparked the possibility of a ‘cage match’ between Meta’s chief Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter’s chief Elon Musk. In the meeting, it was said, “We’ve been hearing from creators and public figures who are interested in having a platform that is sanely run.”
Twitter’s changing rules and restrictions for non-subscribers
Threads have been announced at a time when Twitter is facing issues. Recently, Musk blocked unregistered users from being able to see tweets. Later, rate limits were imposed on the users resulting in platform-wide criticism. Musk said in a tweet that rate limits were introduced to block companies, including AI developers, from scrapping data from the platform.
Twitter has also rolled out major changes in TweetDeck, a tool professionals use, including journalists. Furthermore, TweetDeck is scheduled to become a paid feature within a month.
In response to the announcement of the new app Threads, Musk replied to a handful of tweets that pointed out how much data Meta’s new app is going to collect about users. In response to one of the tweets, he said, “Thank goodness they are so sanely run,” in a sarcastic tone.
Thank goodness they’re so sanely run
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 4, 2023
Furthermore, Twitter’s former CEO Jack Dorsey has also come in support of his brainchild. Jack expressed shock at the amount of data Meta was going to collect. Replying to him, Musk wrote, “Yeah”.
Yeah
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 4, 2023
It’s interesting to note that Meta has a history of borrowing ideas from other applications and making them its own. In the past, several such ideas have worked well for the company. For example, Reels that are available on Instagram and Facebook are seen as a copy of TikTok’s short video format ‘vines’. Stories look strikingly similar to Snapchat features. In both cases, Meta has gained popularity and approval from the users.
While Twitter, under the new leadership, is exploring what would work best for the future, there are speculations that Meta’s new application might become more popular than the former.
