Social media giant Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, launched a new text-based platform Thursday called Threads.
Threads is a direct rival to Twitter — the faltering platform now under the control of billionaire Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk — both in its design and as portrayed in comments from the company’s top executives.
Meta’s chief product officer reportedly called the app “our response to Twitter.” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg also leaned into the comparisons and competition between the two apps.
In response to a user asking if Threads can “become bigger than Twitter,” Zuckerberg replied Thursday to users on Threads, “It’ll take some time, but I think there should be a public conversations app with 1 billion+ people on it.”
“Twitter has had the opportunity to do this but hasn’t nailed it. Hopefully we will,” Zuckerberg wrote.
How does Threads work?
Users can create a Threads account through a mobile app on iPhone and Android devices. There is no web interface yet, but Instagram chief Adam Mosseri said on Threads the company is working on a web version.
Users can use their existing Instagram account to log in and customize their profiles specifically for Threads. An Instagram user can change their username on Threads and set different privacy settings between the two accounts.
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Posts on Threads can be up to 500 characters long — more than the 280-character limit on Twitter — and can include links, photos and videos up to five minutes long. Users can also share Threads posts to Instagram stories or share a link to a Threads post on other platforms.
In their feeds, users will see a mix of Threads posted by users they follow as well as posts with recommended content.
Users can interact with other posts by “hearting,” responding or re-posting them.
Threads already has 30 million users
Threads exploded in popularity soon after its Wednesday launch, with 30 million users already signed up by Thursday morning, acccording to Zuckerberg.
“Wow, 30 million sign ups as of this morning. Feels like the beginning of something special, but we’ve got a lot of work ahead to build out the app,” Zuckerberg posted on Threads.
Within the first seven hours, Zuckerberg boasted, there were already 10 million “sign ups” to Threads, in a post on his own Threads account.
Among the accounts are some prominent news outlets, including CNN, The Associated Press, NBC News and The Hill, which are already posting on the new platform.
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Threads is the latest in a line of alternative text-based apps to launch as a Twitter alternative since Musk’s October takeover of the platform and sweeping changes.
At the same time, Threads is launching as Meta is looking to maintain its popularity amid a threat from the popular video sharing app TikTok.
Threads’s EU launch delayed
Threads is rolling out in more than 100 countries, according to a Meta blog post, but its global presence will be limited to start due to a delayed rollout in the European Union over privacy concerns.
Mosseri told The Verge that Threads is being excluded from the EU initially due to “the complexities with complying with some of the laws coming into effect next year.”
Mosseri is likely referring to the Digital Markets Act, which will add new legal obligations for tech-dominant companies, including Meta, that are considered “gatekeepers.”
A spokesperson for the Irish Data Protection Commission, the regulator that oversees Meta in Europe, also told Politico the app will not be rolled out in the EU just yet.
New features to come
As the app gains traction, Mosseri said there are new features on the way.
Mosseri teased updates such as searching for hashtags and improving the overall search function on the app. Threads may also add a feed where a user can only see posts from accounts they follow. As of now, the app doesn’t have a direct messaging feature, and it’s not clear if that will be added.
Mosseri posted on Threads that they will aim for “steering people towards using other messaging apps to share threads.”
“I don’t know if that’ll last long term, but for now we wanted to keep things simple and avoid adding yet another inbox to people’s phones,” he said.