The highly anticipated and potential Twitter-killer has landed and millions have already downloaded it, according to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Threads, built by Meta’s Instagram team, went live on Wednesday evening and in just the first four hours received an impressive five million sign-ups, Zuckerberg said in a post on the new text-based app.
Clearly enjoying the occasion, Zuckerberg also teased Twitter owner Elon Musk by posting his first tweet in more than a decade containing the classic spiderman-pointing-at-spiderman meme. It seems to be a reference to the striking and deliberate similarities between Threads and Twitter, or perhaps a cheeky reminder about the potential cage fight between the two.
The Meta chief already has 250,000 followers on Threads, almost half of what he has on Twitter. But whereas it might be another decade before he tweets again, it seems likely he’ll be very active on Threads.
“The vision for Threads is to create an open and friendly public space for conversation,” Zuckerberg said in another of his posts on the new app. “We hope to take what Instagram does best and create a new experience around text, ideas, and discussing what’s on your mind.” It seems like they want to take what Twitter does — or did — best, too.
Interest in Threads is through the roof largely because a good many Twitter users are crying out for an alternative microblogging app following the disruptions that have plagued the social media platform since Elon Musk acquired the company in October.
Some observers believe that unless Twitter gets its act together sharpish, it could be curtains for the platform. Others think that it’s already too late. Threads’ arrival certainly hasn’t helped, though of course it’s early days for the new competitor.
At the current time, you log into Threads via your Instagram account, and posts can be up to 500 characters long and contain links, photos, and videos up to five minutes in length.
Digital Trends has a handy guide on how to get started.
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