Threads: Meta's Twitter Competitor & Why You Need Instagram Account To Use It

Meta, which owns Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, on Thursday, July 6 surprised smartphone users by making the new Threads app available for download from both Apple and Google Play app stores.

Viral Tea, this writer and more than 10 million people worldwide became the first beneficiaries of the new app, downloading it within the first few hours of its launch, according to Meta Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mark Zuckerberg.

The app went live on Wednesday, July 5 at 1 am Kenyan time (2300 GMT) with more than five million sign-ups in the first few hours, but its release in Europe has been delayed over data privacy concerns.

"Let's do this. Welcome to Threads," wrote Zuckerberg in his first post on the new platform, which will run with no ads for now.

A graphic showing Viral Tea on Threads. /VIRALTEAKE

Accounts were already active for celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez, Shakira and Hugh Jackman as well as local celebrities such as Wyre, DK Kwenye Beat, Kagwe Mungai and both local as well as international media houses.

"It'll take some time, but I think there should be a public conversations app with 1 billion+ people on it. Twitter has had the opportunity to do this but hasn't nailed it. Hopefully we will," Zuckerberg fired a warning shot to Twitter boss, Elon Musk.

How To Join Threads

When we signed up for the app, there is one distinctive thing we noticed about the newcomer social media platform. To sign up for it, you need your Instagram account.

Yes, your Instagram account...on a platform which has over 1.6 billion users globally, meaning the presence of Threads, according to experts, is likely to pose real problems for Twitter.

"Instagram is where billions of people around the world connect over photos and videos. Our vision with Threads is to take what Instagram does best and expand that to text, creating a positive and creative space to express your ideas.

"Just like on Instagram, with Threads, you can follow and connect with friends and creators who share your interests – including the people you follow on Instagram and beyond. And you can use our existing suite of safety and user controls," Meta explained in its blog post.

Because you need your Instagram account to register, it will be easy to link your account to Threads, keeping the same details such as your username, bio and links on your profile. Also carried over will be your verification status.

Everyone who is under 16 (or under 18 in certain countries) will default to a private profile when they join Threads. You can choose to follow the same accounts you do on Instagram and find more people who care about the same things you do.

The core accessibility features available on Instagram today, such as screen reader support and AI-generated image descriptions, are also enabled on Threads.

How Threads Works

Your feed on Threads includes threads posted by people you follow and recommended content from new creators you haven’t discovered yet. Posts can be up to 500 characters long and include links, photos, and videos up to 5 minutes in length, which, in comparison, Twitter does not offer if you're an unverified user.

You can easily share a Threads post to your Instagram story, or share your post as a link on any other platform you choose. 

"We built Threads with tools to enable positive, productive conversations. You can control who can mention you or reply to you within Threads. Like on Instagram, you can add hidden words to filter out replies to your threads that contain specific words.

A screenshot of the preview of the Threads app launched on July 6, 2023. /APPLE STORE

"You can unfollow, block, restrict or report a profile on Threads by tapping the three-dot menu, and any accounts you’ve blocked on Instagram will automatically be blocked on Threads," Meta added.

As with all Meta products, safety will be taken seriously with the company utilising Instagram’s Community Guidelines on content and interactions in the app.

Future Plans

Meta further announced that it will in due course make Threads compatible with ActivityPub, the open social networking protocol established by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the body responsible for the open standards that power the modern web.

"This would make Threads interoperable with other apps that also support the ActivityPub protocol, such as Mastodon and WordPress – allowing new types of connections that are simply not possible on most social apps today. Other platforms including Tumblr have shared plans to support the ActivityPub protocol in the future.

"We’re committed to giving you more control over your audience on Threads – our plan is to work with ActivityPub to provide you with the option to stop using Threads and transfer your content to another service," added Meta.

The social media giant has a vision for people using compatible apps to follow and interact with people on Threads without having a Threads account, and vice versa, ushering in a new era of diverse and interconnected networks.

If you have a public profile on Threads, this means your posts would be accessible from other apps, allowing you to reach new people with no added effort. If you have a private profile, you’d be able to approve users on Threads who want to follow you and interact with your content, similar to your experience on Instagram.

"The benefits of open social networking protocols go well beyond the ways people can follow each other. Developers can build new types of features and user experiences that can easily plug into other open social networks, accelerating the pace of innovation and experimentation.

"Each compatible app can set its own community standards and content moderation policies, meaning people have the freedom to choose spaces that align with their values. We believe this decentralized approach, similar to the protocols governing email and the web itself, will play an important role in the future of online platforms," the company went on.

Threads is Meta’s first app envisioned to be compatible with an open social networking protocol, a move envisioned as part of plans to join a fast-growing ecosystem of interoperable services which will see Threads help people find their community, no matter what app they use.

P.S.: Follow Viral Tea on Threads @viralteakegram just like our Instagram account. Click this link: https://www.threads.net/@viralteakegram