Meta’s Threads: Everything to know about the Twitter Rival

Meta’s new app Threads is poised to cross 100 million users in just 5 days since its launch, becoming the fastest growing app to achieve the feat. What makes this twitter rival create waves in the tech world?

Threads is a text-based public conversation app launched by Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp-parent Meta on 6 July 2023, for both iOS and Android users across 100 countries. The app bears a strong resemblance to Twitter. Soon after the platform has hit the ground, it crossed 100 million sign-ups in the first five days post launch, a feat that Twitter took five years to achieve.

Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg announced the milestone in a Threads post saying, “That’s mostly organic demand, and we haven’t even turned on many promotions yet. Can’t believe it’s only been 5 days!”

Threads has surprisingly taken ChatGPT’s crown in becoming the fastest growing app to reach the milestone. Open AI’s Chatbot ChatGPT recently set a record by reaching 100 million users in under two months. Threads has outpaced them all.

How does Threads work?

Threads is a distinct micro-blogging platform created by the Instagram team. The app is widely available on both Google and Apply Play Store. Users are first need to sign up through their Instagram account and can cross over their original username. Like Instagram, the app lets you choose between a private account or a public account. Users below 18 years of age receives a default private profile.

While Instagram connects users through multimedia, Threads seeks to offer a distinctive platform inclusively designed for sharing text updates. Although it also allows users to post photos and videos and have real-time conversations. A number of features are synced between the two platform and deleting Threads would delete the user’s Instagram account as well.

Is Threads similar to Twitter?

Threads is similar to Elon Mask’s Twitter in terms of its basic features and user interface. Similar to Twitter, Threads users can make posts, reposts and comment in response and can include links, pictures, or videos up to five minutes duration. But Threads limits text posts to 500 characters.

Twitter has a set of sophisticated advanced features but Threads is still in its infancy with minimalist features. Twitter allows you to search and explore for trending tweets and topics, whereas, Threads only allows you to search for posts from people you follow. But backed by Instagram’s massive userbase, Threads already has a winning formula to take over Twitter.

Is Threads safe to use?

As millions of users are flocking to the Threads app, people are on a lookout for its safety measures. Threads enforces Instagram’s Community Guidelines on content sharing and public interactions within the app. All Instagram safety measures extend to Threads as well. However, the app may collect some personal data like contact info, browsing history, location, health and fitness, financial info, sensitive info and so on. The listing raises concern on how much data privacy you have while using the app. Though Twitter collects similar range of data, Threads app collects far more individual data points that Twitter did not intrude on.

Despite of its fatal flaws and privacy concerns, Threads is giving a blow to Twitter by surpassing 100 million users in first five days of its launch. However, Meta’s newly launched app is still in a nascent stage, but the revolution has certainly begun.