Threads is Meta’s Twitter competitor and it launches on July 6th
Facebook’s parent company Meta has revealed Threads, its upcoming Twitter competitor set to launch on July 6, 2023.
Threads are preparing to hit Twitter as it navigates a turbulent time under CEO Elon Musk, and it will come just days after the social media platform implemented temporary daily limits and announced that would be putting TweetDeck behind a paywall in 30 days.
Threads is currently available for pre-order on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, and you can even do something fun on Instagram to get ready for Thursday. All you have to do is open instagram and search for ‘Threads’, when you do that a red ticket will appear to the right of the search field.
When you click the ticket, you’ll get a virtual ticket to share that includes the time Threads launches (July 6 at 7am PT/10am ET) and a countdown, a QR code and a link to pre-order the app, and Your Instagram name and photo. You can also rotate it and it has a nice shimmer effect with the Threads logo.
“Say more with Threads – Instagram’s text-based conversation app,” reads the official description. “Threads are where communities come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to what will be trending tomorrow. Whatever it is you’re interested in, you can follow and connect directly with your favorite creators and others who love the same things – or build a loyal following to share your ideas, opinions and creativity with the world.”
Threads also promises that you’ll be able to keep your Instagram username and find your followers right away when they join the platform.
While it may be exciting to know that a new social media platform is on the way, some are concerned about the data Threads claims it will collect. If you view Threads’ Apple App Store page, it confirms that the following data may be collected and linked to your identity; Health and fitness, financial information, contact information, user contact, browsing history, usage data, diagnostics, purchases, location, contacts, search history, identifiers, sensitive information and other data.
However, it is important to note that Twitter has most of these links as well, missing only Health and Fitness, Financial Information, Sensitive Information and Other Data.
There have been many other Twitter alternatives that have tried to compete with the platform, including Bluesky, Mastodon and more, but Threads definitely has the advantage of advertising to the more than two billion monthly active Instagram users and building on the work they’ve done on the platform and Facebook.
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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Jerk.
