Thread App: Instagram’s Twitter rival app goes live, gets over 5 million users in just six hours
Meta launched an app ahead of its scheduled known as Threads. Thread app is a Twitter-competitor app that was launched 15 hours ahead and went live at 4:30 AM IST.
New Twitter competitor
Mark Zuckerberg’s much awaited competitor app to Twitter is a text-based app. Further, it is a replacement to Meta’s Instagram photo sharing feature. Furthermore, this feature allows a new, separate space for real-time updates and public conversations.
In addition, the app is available on both iOS and Android smartphones to download and install.
Moreover, the social platform witnessed a massive surge as soon it went live, 5 million users registered themselves.
While, the Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri explains why the platform wants to take on Twitter. He said, “Obviously, Twitter pioneered the space. And there are a lot of good offerings out there for public conversations. But just given everything that was going on, we thought there was an opportunity to build something that was open and something that was good for the community that was already using Instagram.”
Further, Zukerberg’s in his threads post said, “I think there should be a public conversations app with 1 billion+ people on it. Twitter has had the opportunity to do this but hasn’t nailed it. Hopefully we will.”
Availability
As the app rolled out, it was online in the UK. Apart from this, the app is available in more than 100 countries, including the US, Britain, Australia, Canada, and Japan, as well as Apple and Google Android app stores.
However, the app will not be available in European Union due to strict data privacy rules.
Further, Gordon Ramsay, Shakira, and Mark Hoyle, are among few celebrities to first enroll themselves for app.
Features of the App
The app is quiet similar to Twitter in functionality. First, Threads allows users to make text posts with up to 500 characters. Secondly, users can share photos and videos that are 5 minutes long. However, you can not post stories on Threads yet.
Further, the app interface is minimalistic with the homepage consisting of post feed. In addition, each post has options for like, comment, repost, and share. Moreover, the app is also available in dark theme.
Equally important, as the app is based on Instagram, the existing users of the app can login with their Instagram account and follow their list on Thread as well. Similarly, the homepage has a combination of both content that you follow and content recommended to users.
