Facebook’s parent company, Meta has finally launched its new Instagram-based app called Threads. The app, which is expected to rival the troubled Twitter, is available in over 100 countries including the US, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!According to Meta, Threads is where communities come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to what’ll be trending tomorrow. Whatever it is you’re interested in, you can follow and connect directly with your favorite creators and others who love the same things — or build a loyal following of your own to share your ideas, opinions and creativity with the world.
The Threads app requires an Instagram account to sign-up/log-in and users can opt to follow all the same accounts you follow on the app. There is the option to import profile information from Instagram or craft an entirely new one. Most of the features currently available are like those found on Twitter and Tweets are called Threads while Retweets become Reposts.
There is no option for Direct Messages yet, however, users can post 500 characters long text (as opposed to 280 on twitter), links, photos, and up to five minutes long videos. Users will be able to control what gets into their feed by restricting, unfollowing, blocking, or reporting other profiles. There is also the option to restrict who can mention and filter out offensive replies.
Meta aims for the platform to eventually become centralized like Mastodon, thus users will be able to move their account to other services. Due to regulatory issues and safety concerns, Threads is currently not available to Instagram users in the EU and every user in the UK under 18 has their account automatically set to private.