Meta Launches Threads, its Twitter Competitor

Meta has officially launched Threads, its Twitter competitor created by the Instagram team. The app is currently live on the iOS and Android app stores, though it’s not available in the EU yet.

Threads requires users to sign in with their Instagram account, which makes it easy to build a social graph with people you already follow on Instagram. However, Bloomberg reported yesterday that Meta was still evaluating how this data sharing between Threads and Instagram can be in compliance with the EU’s Digital Markets Act.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Thread has already crossed 10 million signups after passing 2 million sign-ups 2 hours after its launch. Compared to other Twitter rivals such as Bluesky (which is still invitation-only) and Mastodon, Threads benefits from its close ties with Instagram, an app that currently has over 2 billion monthly active users.

“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. Just like on Instagram, with Threads you can follow and connect with friends and creators who share your interests – including the people you follow on Instagram and beyond. And you can use our existing suite of safety and user controls,” Meta explained yesterday.

Posts on Threads can be up to 500 characters long, and users can control who can mention them or reply to them. The app also lets users post photos and videos up to 5 minutes in length. It’s also possible to quote messages, which is the equivalent of retweets on Twitter. However, the Threads website is currently view-only, which means users are forced to use the Threads mobile apps to publish content.

Threads’ reliance on Instagram may be a double-edged sword, however: While signing up and creating your social graph using your Instagram account is easy, you can’t delete your account on Threads without simultaneously deleting your Instagram account. You can, however, just deactivate your Threads profile so it becomes invisible.

Meta is planning to make Threads support the same ActivityPub protocol that Mastodon and other decentralized social platforms support. As the future of Elon Musk’s Twitter looks increasingly uncertain, it’s good to see more Twitter competitors emerge and Threads appears to be much simpler to use than Mastodon and its multiple servers system. However, the curiosity effect may well fade off before Meta figures out when Threads can finally launch in the EU.