Threads By META: What We Know So Far

Threads is here, and in the first 3 days of going live it has hit 70 MILLION downloads. Will it be the new social media app? Is it a fad? Will it replace Twitter? Here’s everything we know about this new app from META.

Threads by META

Mark Zuckerberg just launched Threads, an app built by the Instagram team for sharing with text. Whether you’re a creator or a casual poster, Threads offers a new, separate space for real-time updates and public conversations. Instagram is where billions of people around the world connect over photos and videos. The vision with Threads is to take what Instagram does best and expand that to text, creating a positive and creative space to express yourself and your ideas. Just like Instagram, with Threads you can follow and connect with friends and creators who share your interests – including the people you follow on Instagram and beyond.

How To Get Started On Threads

It’s easy to get started with Threads: simply use your Instagram account to log in. Your Instagram username and verification will carry over, with the option to customize your profile specifically for Threads.  Everyone who is under 16 will be defaulted into a private profile when they join Threads. You can choose to follow the same accounts you do on Instagram, and find more people who care about the same things you do. The core accessibility features available on Instagram today, such as screen reader support and AI-generated image descriptions, are also enabled on Threads. Threads is now available in more than 100 countries for iOS and Android, you can download the app from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. 

What Will My Feed Look Like?

Your feed on Threads includes threads posted by people you follow, and recommended content from new creators you haven’t discovered yet. Posts can be up to 500 characters long and include links, photos, and videos up to 5 minutes in length. You can easily share a Threads post to your Instagram story, or share your post as a link on any other platform you choose. 

Threads was built to enable positive, productive conversations. You can control who can mention you or reply to you within Threads. Like on Instagram, you can add hidden words to filter out replies to your threads that contain specific words. You can unfollow, block, restrict or report a profile on Threads by tapping the three-dot menu, and any accounts you’ve blocked on Instagram will automatically be blocked on Threads.

Can You Deactivate Your Account?

It’s not quite so easy to leave Threads. While users can temporarily deactivate their profiles via the settings section on the app, the company says in its privacy policy that “your Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting your Instagram account.” Some users have also raised concerns about the amount of data that the Threads, like Instagram, can collect about users, including location, contacts, search history, browsing history, contact info and more, according to the Apple App Store.

Will It Be The Next Influencer Marketing Tool?

Threads still has a way to go before it has full functionality for a marketing tool. You can't schedule your threads, you cannot use it from a desktop. Right now it appears that Threads is solely for building a following or chatting with like minded friends and colleagues.

Early Thoughts About Threads

The mood on Threads Wednesday night when it first launched felt like the first day of school, with early adopters rushing to try out the app and write their first posts — and some questioning whether the app could end up being the “Twitter killer.”

Threads could pose a serious threat to Twitter, which has faced backlash since Elon Musk took over the platform in October 2022. But Twitter has become particularly vulnerable in recent days, angering users over a temporary limit on how much content users can view each day. And for Meta, Threads could further expand its empire of popular apps and provide a new platform on which to sell ads. "We are definitely focusing on kindness and making this a friendly place," Meta CEO Zuckerberg said on Wednesday, shortly after the launch.

We will see how this new app measures up against others in the coming weeks. Are you on Threads? What do you think so far?