With its own conversational software meant to lure users away from Elon Musk’s platform, Meta is squaring off against Twitter. The firm behind Facebook and Instagram has released a new app called Threads in Apple’s App Store that bills itself as a text-based conversation tool. The app is still marked as “coming soon,” but it is anticipated to go live on July 6.
The description of Threads states, “Threads is where communities come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to what will be trending tomorrow.” In order to share your thoughts, opinions, and creativity with the world, you may either develop a devoted following of your own or follow and connect with your favorite creators and other people who share your interests.
Since owner Musk assumed control of the network, Twitter has been steeped in controversy and confusion, and a number of competitors have emerged in an effort to win over displeased users. Mastodon and Blue-sky, two platforms that advertise themselves as Twitter substitutes and provide forums for discussion of various topics, are two examples of this. Although the new rivals have been successful in attracting a sizable number of users (Blue-sky has suspended new signups due to an inflow of users), no service has yet had the power and reach to outperform Twitter.
However, Meta might be the only business that seriously threatens Twitter. Nearly 3 billion Facebook users and more than 2.3 billion Instagram users are all owned by the corporation and could all sign up for Threads. The procedure is being made comparatively simple by Meta. When using Threads, Instagram users can continue using their current username and following their current accounts. As opposed to other Twitter competitors, there is no need to start from scratch.
At the same time, people continue to protest about Musk’s continual and arbitrary changes to the Twitter platform. The firm has begun limiting how many tweets you can view every day based on your level of access, the owner of Twitter said over the weekend. Musk hailed the change as a means to reduce data scraping and system manipulation, but many Twitter users expressed worry and uncertainty about how the new restrictions would work in practice.
450 million people are engaged on Twitter right now, although this number has decreased since Musk took over in October 2022. By the end of 2024, according to an Insider Intelligence prediction from December 2022, there would have been a loss of more than 30 million members.
Though the App Store description contains a few nuggets, Meta hasn’t provided many specifics regarding Threads. More than 30 different languages will be offered along with the free app itself. The programme is currently only available on the App Store, but a mobile developer by the name of Alessandro Palazzi tweeted on Saturday that Threads was now available on Google Play and even included screenshots of the Play page.
An automated message featuring a poop emoji was Twitter’s standard response to an email asking for feedback on the new Threads app. In response to a few queries in an email to Meta, the company’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg only provided a link to an Instagram post promoting Threads with a deadline of 6 July at 7 am PT.
According to Luke Lintz, CEO of social media and digital marketing firm HighKey Enterprises, “Meta’s launch of Threads could be the beginning of the end for Twitter in the highly competitive social media market.” “Not only will the new micro-blogging platform [Threads] feel and look nearly identical to Twitter, it will also be seamlessly connected to Instagram.”
Lintz based his assertion on the rise in use of alternative social media sites Truth Social, Bluesky, and Mastodon following Musk’s acquisition of Twitter. According to Lintz, Threads might also perform a better job of managing material, luring advertisers that withdrew millions of dollars from Twitter after Musk dismantled the company’s content moderation team.
At debut, Threads will add the user bases of Instagram and Facebook to the platform, and Meta has an astronomically larger user population than Twitter, therefore I view Threads as a real competitor to Twitter.
“Threads is launching at a critical time when Twitter has just released a lot of very unappealing features that are basically forcing people into Twitter Blue and restricting the amount of content the users can load on a daily basis,” Lintz continued. Because it will be so simple to distribute material between the two Meta platforms thanks to Threads’ direct connection to Instagram, I predict a large influx of new users who had never used Twitter.
