Threads by Instagram – live: Meta’s new Twitter rival app gets 10 million sign-ups in first hours of launch

Threads arrives at a particularly difficult time for Twitter

Meta to offer a Twitter alternative with Threads

Meta’s new Twitter rival Threads has racked up over five million signups within the first four hours of its launch, the tech giant’s chief Mark Zuckerberg said.

Threads arrives at a particularly difficult time for Elon Musk’s Twitter. The site has faced a range of technical issues in recent days, which it has blamed on AI services scraping its site.

“Threads, an Instagram app” is already listed on the App Store. It aims to take on the app with a range of features that are similar to those offered by Twitter, according to its App Store listing.

“Threads is where communities come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to what’ll be trending tomorrow,” it reads. “Whatever it is you’re interested in, you can follow and connect directly with your favourite creators and others who love the same things — or build a loyal following of your own to share your ideas, opinions and creativity with the world.”

It is the latest in a long line of apps to try and take over from the increasingly troubled Twitter in offering text-based updates.

Key Points

• Threads might arrive at the worst possible time for Elon Musk
• Threads’ simplicity might be its USP
• UFC and others have already posted on the site

[6 July 2023 06:58 · Vishwam Sankaran]

'Five million sign ups in 4 hours'

Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg posted that Threads has seen over 5 million sign-ups since its launch.

“Just passed 5 million sign-ups in the first four hours,” Zuckerberg wrote.

Earlier in the day, the app had seen over 2 million signups within the first 2 hours of its launch.

The app’s link to Instagram allows users to create Threads accounts with their existing Instagram usernames, as well as connect with those they already follow on the image-based app.

[6 July 2023 05:55 · Vishwam Sankaran]

'Two million sign ups passed in first two hours'

Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg posted on Threads that the new app has passed over 2 million sign ups since its launch.

“Threads just passed 2 million sign ups in the first two hours,” Mr Zuckerberg posted.

The Twitter rival app is available in over 100 countries and allows users to post up to 500 characters.

Mr Zuckerberg said keeping the platform “friendly... will ultimately be the key to its success”.

Asked whether the app will be “bigger than Twitter,” he said “It’ll take some time,” adding that “there should be a public conversations app with 1 billion+ people on it.”

[6 July 2023 05:00 · Vishwam Sankaran]

Threads to do for text what Instagram achieves for photos and videos, Meta says

Threads allows users to post text 500 characters long and also include links, photos, and videos up to 5 minutes in length.

“Our vision with Threads is to take what Instagram does best and expand that to text, creating a positive and creative space to express your ideas,” Meta noted in a blog post.

Users can start on Threads using their Instagram account to log in.

“Your Instagram username and verification will carry over, with the option to customize your profile specifically for Threads,” the company noted.

“You can choose to follow the same accounts you do on Instagram, and find more people who care about the same things you do,” it said.

Here’s everything you need to know about the app’s launch.

[6 July 2023 03:54 · Vishwam Sankaran]

Threads faces trouble launching in Europe over privacy concerns

While the Twitter competitor app is downloadable in US and UK app stores, users in EU countries like Germany cannot use it.

Threads would access Instagram user data, including search history, location data, and other private information, according to TechCrunch.

Twitter co-founder and former chief Jack Dorsey tweeted his concerns about Thread’s data requirements.

“All your Threads belong to us,” Mr Dorsey tweeted along with a snapshot of the new app’s data needs mentioned in its App Store page. Twitter’s current owner Elon Musk acknowledged the tweet by replying “Yeah.”

Threads may also be accessing users’ other private data, including financial and health information, exact location, browser history, contacts, and search history.

Meta is reportedly figuring out ways to adjust to the EU’s data protection laws.

[6 July 2023 00:29 · Andrew Griffin]

Eurovision welcomes Europe – but most of the continent can’t hear it

Among the early people posting to Threads is Eurovision, which kicked off with a post reading “Good evening Europe”. But, as the top comment points out, most of Europe can’t read that post – the app is not available in the European Union because of data privacy concerns.

(Meta)

[6 July 2023 00:26 · Andrew Griffin]

UFC and others have already posted on the site

Instagram has been encouraging its early adopters to post early, so that the news feed is full when people first enter it. And that seems to have worked: the feed already has posts from people including the UFC, many of which went up hours before the app actually went live.

[6 July 2023 00:24 · Andrew Griffin]

How to sign up for Threads

Meta has made Threads as easy to get started with as possible. You log in with your existing account, and the design is a simple mash-up of Instagram and Twitter.

Here’s everything you need to know to get started.

[6 July 2023 00:02 · Andrew Griffin]

Threads is here!

Threads has now been announced. You can find out everything you need to know here.

[5 July 2023 23:46 · Andrew Griffin]

How to delete Twitter

There has, perhaps, been more interest in leaving Twitter than going to an alternative, like Threads. If you want to get away from Elon Musk’s social network and delete your account while you do, here’s what you need to do.

[5 July 2023 21:09 · Andrew Griffin]

Threads’ simplicity might be its USP

Numerous other apps have attempted to unseat Twitter, especially since Elon Musk took over and the site became both more controversial and less reliable. But most of them have struggled.

Often, that has been at least partly the result of friction in signing up. Mastodon involves a slightly complex system of different servers that result in long display names; Bluesky is still in a limited release that means people need a signup code.

Threads – backed by the mighty infrastructure of Meta – seems to be ready to take all signups at launch. (Presumably, people might not even need to actually sign up at all, if they have an Instagram account.) That might be one of the ways it really challenges Twitter, by reducing the time and effort required to start using it.

We’ll find out soon.