Exploring Threads: A Comprehensive Guide to Meta’s New Twitter Competitor
Meta has launched Threads, a text-based application designed to compete with Twitter.
The app, billed as a text-based version of Meta’s photo-sharing platform Instagram, became available to users in more than 100 countries on Wednesday night — including the US, UK, Australia, Canada and Japan. Despite some early hiccups, 30 million people had signed up before noon Thursday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Threads.
Newcomers to the platform include celebrities like Oprah, pop star Shakira, and chef Gordon Ramsay—as well as corporate accounts from Taco Bell, Netflix, Spotify, the Washington Post, and other media outlets.
Threads, which Meta says offers “a new, separate space for real-time updates and public discussions,” comes at a time when many are looking for Twitter alternatives to avoid Elon Musk’s fierce scrutiny of the platform, which was acquired by Semafor on Thursday.Twitter has threatened legal action against Meta over Threads. In a letter addressed to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and dated Wednesday, Alex Spiro, a lawyer representing Twitter, accused Meta of misusing Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property by hiring former Twitter employees to create a “copycat app.”
Meta spokesman Andy Stone responded to a report about Spiro’s letter on Threads on Thursday afternoon, writing, “No one on the Threads design team is a former Twitter employee.”
Musk hasn’t tweeted directly about the possibility of legal action, but he has responded to a number of awkward views about the launch of Threads. A Twitter owner responded to one tweet suggesting that Meta’s app was largely built around copy and paste with a laughing emoji.
Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino has also not publicly commented on Wednesday’s letter, but appeared to address Threads’ launch in a tweet Thursday, writing that “the Twitter community can never be duplicated.”
HAS THIS BEEN DONE BEFORE?
Similarities to Meta’s new text-based app suggest the company is aiming to challenge Twitter head-on. Turbulent ownership has led to a series of unpopular changes that have turned off users and advertisers, some of whom are looking for Twitter alternatives.
Threads is the latest Twitter competitor to enter the landscape after Bluesky, Mastodon and Spill.
HOW DO TRANSMISSIONS MEET THE CONTENT?
According to Meta, Threads uses the same security measures as Instagram — including following Instagram’s community guidelines and providing tools to control who can mention or reply to users.
Content warnings — from conspiracy theory groups to misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines — also seem similar to Instagram.
WHAT ARE PRIVACY PROTECTIONS?
Threads can collect a wide variety of personal information — including health, financial, contact information, browsing and search history, location data, purchases and “sensitive information,” according to its privacy notice on the App Store.
Also, Threads is currently not available in the European Union, which has strict privacy regulations.
Meta informed the Irish Data Privacy Commission, Meta’s main EU data protection authority, that it has no plans yet to launch Threads in the 27-country bloc, commission spokesman Graham Doyle said. The company said it was working to roll out the app to more countries – but pointed to regulatory uncertainty in its decision to delay the launch in Europe.
WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF TOURS?
Threads’ success is far from guaranteed. Industry observers point to Meta’s track record of launching standalone apps that were later shut down — including the Instagram messaging app, also called “Thread,” which shut down less than two years after its 2019 launch, Proulx notes.
Still, Proulx and others say the new app could be a major headache for Musk and Twitter.
“The euphoria around the new service and this big bang will probably calm down. But it’s clear that this option is here to stay and will prove to be a worthy competitor given all of Twitter’s problems,” PP Foresight technology analyst Paolo Pescatore said, noting that combining Twitter-style features with Instagram’s look and feel could gain user engagement.
However, Threads is in its early days, and a lot depends on user feedback. Pescatore believes the close connection between Instagram and Threads may not resonate with everyone. The introduction of new features is also key.
“The real test is not whether we can build a lot of hype, but whether you find enough value in the app to continue using it over time,” Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri wrote in a Threads post on Thursday. He also admitted, as many users already have, that “tons of basics” are missing, including hashtags and direct messages between users. “Full disclosure, it will take time.”
