Threads: What to Know About Instagram’s ‘Twitter Killer’ App

After months of hypothesis and secrecy, Mark Zuckerberg’s long-rumored competitor app to Twitter is right here.

The brand new app, Threads, was unveiled on Wednesday as a companion to Instagram, the favored photo-sharing community that Mr. Zuckerberg’s firm, Meta, purchased greater than a decade in the past. If Instagram executives get their approach, Threads can even substitute rival Twitter, with some techies referring to it as a “Twitter killer.”

The rollout of Threads ramps up the rivalry between Mr. Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, who purchased Twitter final yr. Mr. Musk has modified the expertise of Twitter by tinkering with its algorithm and different options, and most not too long ago imposed momentary limits on what number of tweets individuals may learn when utilizing the app, inciting outrage.

Many tech corporations have tried capitalizing on Twitter’s turmoil in current months. However Threads has a leg up, backed by Meta’s deep pockets and Instagram’s huge consumer base of greater than two billion month-to-month energetic customers all over the world.

In a put up to his Threads account on Wednesday, Mr. Zuckerberg stated: “I feel there ought to be a public conversations app with 1 billion+ individuals on it. Twitter has had the chance to do that however hasn’t nailed it. Hopefully we are going to.” He stated that Threads achieved 5 million sign-ups inside 4 hours of its launch, and some hours later stated the quantity had grown to 10 million.

Mr. Musk weighed in, saying he was not impressed by Threads and claiming he had canceled his Instagram account. “It’s infinitely preferable to be attacked by strangers on Twitter, than indulge within the false happiness of hide-the-pain Instagram,” he wrote on Twitter.

Right here’s what to find out about Threads.

What’s Threads and the way does it work?

Constructed by Instagram, Threads is positioned as an app the place individuals can have real-time, public conversations with each other. Threads additionally helps enhance Instagram, which is a marquee app in Meta’s household of merchandise.

“The concept is to hopefully construct an open, pleasant house for communities,” Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, stated in an interview.

Instagram has tied Threads carefully to itself. These enthusiastic about signing up for the brand new app are required to have an Instagram account for now. A consumer’s Instagram deal with should even be their Threads consumer identify.

And other people will have the ability to instantly import the listing of these they observe on Instagram to Threads if they need. Instagram’s verified customers can even be verified on the brand new app. Customers can set their Threads account to be non-public or public.

How is Threads much like or completely different from Twitter?

Threads seems to be almost similar to Twitter in some ways. Customers can put up largely text-based messages to a scrolling feed, the place individuals who observe them and whom they observe can reply. Folks may also put up pictures or video to the app.

However Threads can also be completely different from Twitter. It doesn’t presently assist direct messaging, a characteristic that Twitter provides. Instagram stated it could add options to Threads if new customers ask for them.

How did Instagram provide you with Threads?

Instagram has made a concerted effort to simplify its app over the previous few years, Mr. Mosseri stated. As a part of that effort, he stated, Threads was spun out right into a separate app. That approach, Instagram wouldn’t be too cluttered by making an attempt to make public conversations work inside its current app.

The selection to create a brand new app was additionally onerous to withstand, Mr. Mosseri added, particularly at a tumultuous second within the social media panorama.

“There was a possibility or demand for extra individuals to play within the public house,” he stated, referring to the adjustments round Twitter beneath Mr. Musk. Mr. Mosseri added that the prospect to problem Twitter happened “not simply due to the possession, however due to product adjustments and choices” that Mr. Musk and others made to how the social platform works.

Instagram started its effort to tackle Twitter late final yr, with dozens of engineers, product managers and designers pitching concepts on what a rival app may seem like. Among the many notions Meta’s staff talked over on the time was a extra in depth rollout of a characteristic known as Instagram Notes, the place individuals can share brief messages on the location, and a text-focused app utilizing Instagram’s know-how.

In the end, Mr. Mosseri stated, he and different managers determined they need to “make a wager” on a messaging app and leaned into constructing what turned Threads.

How will Threads work with different apps?

Instagram’s purpose is to finally have Threads work throughout a number of apps in what it calls the Fediverse, which is shorthand for a federated universe of companies that share communication protocols. Different apps like Mastodon, one other social community, additionally perform on this approach.

This may sound like a number of tech communicate. What it means, basically, is that Instagram desires to make it simpler for Threads to function seamlessly with different platforms, which may enchantment to creators and influencers so they don’t have to begin from scratch on every app.

If a creator builds up a large variety of followers on Threads, as an illustration, they might ostensibly take these followers with them to different platforms which are constructed on the identical know-how. That will make it much less dangerous for creators and will free them from feeling like they’re “caught” on one platform, Mr. Mosseri stated.

Has Instagram cloned different apps?

Mr. Zuckerberg’s Meta, which additionally owns Fb and WhatsApp, has an intensive historical past of making an attempt to stamp out social media rivals, partly by copying their options. Mr. Zuckerberg is fiercely aggressive and has lengthy needed to personal a product that accomplishes what Twitter does.

That technique doesn’t all the time assure success. Fb’s early makes an attempt to clone the ephemeral messaging app Snapchat, for instance, didn’t initially acquire a lot traction.

Even so, Meta has continued to mimic rivals. In 2020, Meta launched a TikTok copycat known as Reels, which focuses on brief movies and has since turn out to be extensively used.

The place will Threads be accessible?

Threads is on the market for obtain free of charge from Apple’s App Retailer and the Google Play retailer in the USA and roughly 100 different international locations starting on Wednesday. It has plans to broaden additional.

However Meta stated Threads won’t initially be accessible within the European Union, one of many firm’s largest markets. A brand new E.U. legislation known as the Digital Markets Act is taking impact within the coming months and limits how the most important tech corporations share information throughout companies. Meta stated it was ready to get extra specifics concerning the legislation’s implementation earlier than introducing Threads throughout the 27-nation bloc.

Adam Satariano contributed reporting.