Global Courant
Tech titans Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk are involved in a fierce business rivalry that has spilled over into a playground, with the two men offering to fight each other in a cage.
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meta has officially launched its Twitter-like messaging app Threads, which the company presents as Instagram’s “text-based conversation app.”
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and co-founder of Meta, announced on Wednesday the debut of Threads, the official release of the social networking giant’s new text-centric messaging app. Threads represents Meta’s attempt to capture the wave of users who have left Twitter amid the often unpredictable ownership of Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.
The Threads app is now available to download for free on the Apple App Store and Google Play online store in more than 100 countries, Meta said in a blog post. Threads shares Twitter’s visual aesthetic as a text-based social messaging app in which users can post short messages for others to like, share, and comment, according to Threads screenshots available on Apple’s App Store.
People can follow the same Threads accounts they follow on Instagram and comment on other public posts in a way similar to how people use Twitter.
The official release comes after Instagram issued on Monday pre-ordered Threads from the Apple App Store, which said the app was expected to release on July 6 at the time. Many Instagram users were also recently able to get invitations to access Threads from their Instagram accounts.
While Threads is linked to Instagram, allowing users to use their existing Instagram usernames, the messaging service is a separate app that people must download.
“Threads is where communities come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to what will be trending tomorrow,” Instagram said in a description of Threads on the Apple App Store. “Whatever you’re interested in, you can follow and connect directly with your favorite creators and others who love the same things – or you can build a loyal following yourself to share your ideas, opinions and creativity with the world.”
Meta said in the blog post that people’s individual feeds on the new messaging app will feature “threads” posted by other users they follow, in addition to recommended content shared by creators users may not know.
People can publish Threads posts that are up to 500 characters long, and while the app is focused on text, people can also share links, photos, and videos that can be up to 5 minutes long. Instagram users can also share their Threads posts through the app’s story feature, in addition to “any other platform you choose,” according to the blog post.
Meta said it developed Threads “with tools to facilitate positive, productive conversations,” and that people can manage who mentions or comments on them in the app.
“Just like on Instagram, you can add hidden words to filter out replies to your threads that contain specific words,” the blog post reads. “You can unfollow, block, limit or report a profile on Threads by tapping the three-dot menu, and any accounts you’ve blocked on Instagram will be automatically blocked on Threads.”
Racing into the hole as Twitter implodes
The release of Threads comes as Twitter has suffered a spate of mishaps under the ownership of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, leaving the popular social messaging app vulnerable to competing apps.
Most recently, Musk said Twitter users can only see a certain number of tweets per day in an effort to deal with “extreme levels of data scraping” and “system manipulation” on the messaging service.
Countless Twitter users publicly complained that Musk was imposing a temporary so-called “speed limit” on Twitter, saying that the Tweet limits make the app a less engaging experience.
BlueSky, a rival social messaging app backed by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, said it registered “record high traffic” after Musk announced the Twitter speed limit, and has temporarily paused signups to allow for the influx of new ones. address messages. users, who currently need to be invited to use the app.
Like BlueSky, Threads will use decentralized technology that will theoretically allow users to monitor and manage their data in other apps that contain the same underlying software.
While BlueSky is built on the decentralized networking technology called the AT protocol, Threads will eventually feature another decentralized technology called ActivityPub, Instagram head Adam Mosseri said in a Threads post on Wednesday that was briefly available to the public. The ActivityPub software also supports another Twitter-like messaging app called Mastadon, which has also experienced an influx of new users looking for an alternative to Twitter.
Mosseri said his team was unable to support ActivityPub in time for Threads’ official release due to “a number of complications that come with a decentralized network.” But he reiterated that support is coming.
“If you’re wondering why this matters, here’s a reason: You could leave Threads one day, or, hopefully, not, leave the platform,” Mosseri said. “If that ever happens, you should be able to take your audience to another server. Being open can make that happen.”
Meta added in its blog post that ActivityPub will allow people without a Threads account to view Threads and interact with Threads users who have public profiles through other social apps that feature the same decentralized technology.
“Having a public profile on Threads means your posts can be accessed from other apps, allowing you to reach new people without any extra effort,” Meta said in the blog post. “Having a private profile allows you to approve users on Threads who want to follow you and comment on your content, similar to your experience on Instagram.”
Meta said Threads is the company’s first app “expected to be compatible with an open social networking protocol,” which it believes “could usher in a new era of diverse and interconnected networks.”
In 2019, Meta, then known as Facebook, debuted a messaging app for Instagram users also called Threads. Unlike the current version of Threads that caters to text-based messages, the previous Threads app instead focused on people sending short video and photo messages to their friends as if they were using Snapchat.
Meta finally Closed Threads in 2021, and redirected people to use Instagram to see all of their past Threads posts.
