Threads Launches in Europe and Starts Testing ActivityPub Integration
- Laurent Giret
- Dec 14, 2023
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Meta’s Threads app is officially launching in Europe today. The Twitter/X clone launched in over 100 countries in July, and last week, users noticed that Meta had started teasing a launch in Europe on December 14 with a live countdown on the app’s website.
“Today we’re opening Threads to more countries in Europe,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a brief welcoming message posted on Threads. As of today, users in Europe can either log in to Threads with an Instagram account or browse the platform without a profile. In that case, however, that means not being able to post or interact with other users on the platform.
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Threads is available on the web, and there are also native apps for iOS and Android. If you’re familiar with Twitter/X, the UI and UX on Threads should be really familiar. Posts on Threads can be up to 500 characters long with links, photos, and videos up to 5 minutes in length, and you can also easily share your Threads posts to your Instagram story.
In October, Zuckerberg said that Threads had “just under 100 million monthly active users.” So far, the app appears as one of the most solid alternatives to Twitter/X, and the platform is also finally starting to deliver on its promise of interoperability with other apps that support the ActivityPub protocol, including Mastodon and WordPress.
“Starting a test where posts from Threads accounts will be available on Mastodon and other services that use the ActivityPub protocol,” Zuckerberg posted yesterday. “Making Threads interoperable will give people more choice over how they interact and it will help content reach more people.”
While Threads already appears as more “open” than the rest of Meta’s social media platforms, Threads’s reliance on Instagram accounts could be a double-edged sword. Currently, some settings, like your username and password, apply to both Threads and Instagram accounts. If you want to have a different identity on Threads, you may be forced to create another Instagram account.