Instagram has officially launched its new Twitter rival, Threads. Over the last year, a bunch of new (or previously very niche) social media apps that aim to be just like Twitter have been popping up. These apps have aimed to try to poach Twitter users after Elon Musk acquired the bird-themed app for over $40 billion. Although Musk has his fair share of vocal supporters, he has also been criticized for the way he has run the company. He has made sweeping changes to Twitter that involved laying off a majority of the company, paywalling features that were previously free, and straight up breaking the app, rendering it largely unusable for periods of time.
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Due to the amount of Twitter rivals, it has been hard for people to find a new social media home, but it seems like Meta/Facebook may have the answer. A new app known as Threads which uses a lot of the same ideas as Twitter with a scrolling text feed for short posts and whatnot has been released. What separates this app from others is that you aren’t completely starting from scratch. Meta is allowing users to use it as an extension of Instagram, meaning you can import your followers/who you follow, your profile, and other relevant data over to Threads. It makes it easier for people to find you and creates a sense of connectivity between the apps. With that said, it seems to be going over fairly well so far, though there are a handful of bugs.
Threads does lack some of Twitter’s more in-depth features such as polls, gifs, and even DMs, something that’s featured on Instagram and Facebook. The timeline also includes people you don’t follow and it’s not in chronological order, so it’s a bit of a mess right now. However, it’s likely this will all be sorted out in due time as Meta gets feedback on the app and is able to implement it all.
What do you think of Threads? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @Cade_Onder.
