Facebook’s parent company, Meta, officially launched its Twitter rival, “Threads,” in July 2023. The app arrived after Meta confirmed its plans for the app’s reveal three months prior to its release.
Threads is a standalone messaging app created by Instagram that is designed to foster intimate and private conversations between close friends. The app serves as an extension of Instagram, offering users a dedicated space to interact with a select group of people in a more focused manner.
Threads allows Instagram users to link their existing accounts to Threads, eliminating the need for users to create a separate account. Meta announced that messages posted to Threads will have a 500-word limit. Threads will have the ability to share posts directly to Instagram Stories.
According to a comparative analysis released by “Website Planet,” a web development service for companies, Threads geared more online engagement with social media users than its rival, Twitter. The research studied 30 diverse brands that had a huge social media presence on both Twitter and its counterpart and made the same post on both apps.
Since the application launched, more than 100 million people have signed up for it, from celebrities to major brand corporations and media outlets.
Two hours after its release, Threads saw more than two million sign ups, The New York Times reported. Chat GPT held the record as fastest growing app six months prior to Threads’ introduction.
The release and fast popularity of Threads has put a bigger spotlight on the long recorded rivalry between Meta Founder, Mark Zuckerberg, and Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk.
A lawyer reportedly issued a letter to Meta alleging intellectual property theft and has threatened a lawsuit over Threads, according to CNN. In response to news regarding the letter, Musk issued a tweet stating that “Competition is fine, cheating is not.”
Since Musk took over Twitter in October 2022, the app has undergone major changes including a temporary limit on how much content people are allowed to view, CNN reported.
Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino acknowledged Threads’ popularity, tweeting that the app is “Irreplaceable.”
Despite Threads’ popularity skyrocketing in America, the application is reportedly facing troubles internationally. The app is unable to be downloaded in the European Union, The Verge reported.
Meta Spokesperson, Christine Pai, called the social media block in Europe an “upcoming regulatory uncertainty” assumed by many to be a result of the EU’s Digital Markets Act.
Instagram CEO, Adam Mosseri, has alluded to the idea that the EU’s DMA is at fault for Threads’ delayed release.
Although Threads has gained major popularity in only a short amount of time in its freshman year, the app is still missing many components that its rival app possess including a desktop version, direct messaging to other users and a key feature — the ability to edit posts after going public.
Threads is available in 100 countries and in more than 30 different languages.
