Meta’s Twitter Competitor ‘Threads’ Connected to Instagram May Launch on July 6th

For some time now, it has been known that Meta has been working on a rival to Twitter. However, we now have a clearer indication of when this new app will be available. An app called Threads has recently appeared in the iOS App Store, with a projected release date of July 6th. In a report from May, it was suggested that the development of this microblogging service was nearing completion and it could have been launched by the end of June. Although the end-of-June release did not materialize, the timing of the app’s arrival may coincide with a period when Twitter users are more open to exploring alternative platforms, and perhaps even excited to do so.

Twitter recently set a limit on how many tweets an unverified account can read per day. Elon Musk announced in his message that verified accounts – meaning paying users – can read 6,000 messages per day, while unverified/unpaid users can only read 600. He said the website is adopting the measure “to fix extreme data scraping [and] system manipulation .” The average user can easily hit 600 posts, so people who haven’t paid $8-11 a month for the blue checkmark have been left out of their feed.

Meta describes Threads as “Instagram’s text-based chat app.” Based on screenshots published in the listing, users can keep their Instagram handles and follow the same accounts they follow on the photo-sharing platform. This means users already have an existing following and circles on the new app, giving it an edge over other Twitter competitors. Users can also choose the privacy of their messages and show them to everyone, to the profiles they follow or only to the accounts they mention. They can also heart, send and share other people’s messages.

Previous reports suggested Meta’s Twitter rival would be a decentralized service compatible with Mastodon, but it’s unclear if that will still be the case when it launches. We’ll know for sure in a few days.