Twitter killer: What you need to know about Instagram’s threads

Instagram’s much-hyped new Twitter-killer app, Threads, is here. And it’s a lot like Twitter. That’s exactly the point.

Many social media users are ready — even desperate — for a solid Twitter replacement, as the app has gone through a particularly rough patch in what many see as its gradual product degeneration under Elon Musk̵[ads1]7;s leadership. Last weekend, the company began limiting the number of tweets people can read, a questionable business decision that was widely unpopular with users. While there are some alternatives out there, such as Mastodon and Bluesky, none have grown to surpass Twitter’s popularity with a critical mass of politically and culturally influential figures.

So Meta-owned Instagram decided to strike while the iron is hot. The Threads app was originally expected to launch later this month, only to be moved up to this Thursday, and now, to today. The app will go live for users in 100 countries, but reportedly not in the EU (more on that later).

“Our vision with Threads is to take what Instagram does best and extend it to text, creating a positive and creative space to express your ideas,” Instagram’s parent company, Meta, wrote in a blog post Wednesday.

Functionally, Threads is similar to Twitter, with some minor differences. You can write short posts of up to 500 characters (versus Twitter’s 250) that include links, images and short videos of up to five minutes. Your Threads feed will be algorithmic, meaning it will be populated by a mix of people you follow and recommended content: much like Instagram now. Twitter gives you the option to switch between an algorithmic and a chronological feed with only people you follow. But overall, based on early screenshots of the app shared with Vox, the apps look and feel pretty similar.

The main defining feature that separates Threads from Twitter is its decentralized ambitions. That means in the future you should be able to connect your Threads posts to other social media platforms like Mastodon—a very different approach from Twitter, which has limited free API access to third-party developers. But the interoperability is not ready yet, according to Meta. And it’s also not what many everyday users care about the most, which is who posts on it and how easy it is to use.

So how will this new app actually work and what is it like? And does it have a real chance to take over Twitter?

How to use it and what it is like

To use Threads, you need to download it as a standalone app in the Apple or Android store.

Once you have the app, you can log in with your Instagram account and choose to follow the same people you already follow on that platform. This is one of Thread’s biggest advantages over other Twitter replacement apps: Over 2 billion people already have a built-in social network on Instagram, so unlike, say, Mastodon, you don’t have to recreate your follower base from scratch.

The Instagram and Threads worlds are very interconnected. If you’re verified on Instagram (which you can now pay for), the verification will roll over into threads. And you can cross-post your threads on Instagram as a story, or as a link to another platform.

Once there, it works a lot like Twitter, albeit with an Instagram design flair, including the same Instagram font and icons. You can like, reply or repost a thread. The feed will be a combination of people you follow and recommended content from people you don’t follow, according to Meta.

Getting the thread feed algorithm right will be key for Instagram. Many users have complained about Twitter’s “For You” feed showing them too much content from random users they don’t want to see, and that they miss the old default chronological feed on Twitter. We’ll see how users respond to posts Threads think they want to see, versus those they’ve voluntarily chosen.

What Threads’ decentralized approach means

Threads is the first app from Meta to push toward “decentralization” — the idea that users should be able to transfer their social media content and interact with users, across different apps, all built on the same underlying standards.

Mastodon is the most popular social network that runs on a decentralized model, which advocates say could produce a better internet no longer dominated by a single social media company. Threads similarly plans to take a decentralized approach.

But it’s not there yet.

Sometime “soon,” the company wrote in a blog post, Threads will be compatible with the ActivityPub protocol. It is a system developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), an international organization that sets standards for the modern Internet, to govern how social networks can run independently.

The idea is that one day in the future you can have your Threads posts visible on other apps like Mastodon or WordPress, or vice versa, and allow users to comment on posts across apps. And if you decided to stop using Threads altogether, you could hypothetically transfer all your content to a new app.

“We believe this decentralized approach, similar to the protocols that govern email and the web itself, will play an important role in the future of online platforms,” ​​Meta wrote in a blog post.

Decentralization is one buzzy concept in the tech world right now and could give Threads appeal to the more digitally savvy audience. But most users are not familiar with decentralization, and probably don’t care much about it. What really matters is how many people end up downloading and actually enjoying their experience on the app, which brings us to the next point.

Regulatory concerns and other obstacles

Meta faces some significant regulatory and reputational hurdles when it comes to launching this app globally.

For example, Meta Threads is not currently launching in the EU due to regulatory uncertainty in the EU that comes with the new Digital Markets Act, according to Bloomberg. The law limits what large companies designated as “gatekeepers” can do.

“Europe continues to be an incredibly important market for Meta. We are working on launching Threads in more countries and will continue to consider whether to launch in Europe, but the upcoming regulatory uncertainty has played into our decision not to launch right now ,” a spokesperson for Meta Vox sent in a statement.

Regarding privacy concerns, Meta said in its blog post that anyone under 16 (or 18 in certain countries) will by default use a private profile when joining threads. From a security perspective, Instagram said it gives users the same tools they have on Instagram to limit who can mention or reply to you, hide specific offensive words in replies and unfollow, block or limit accounts.

But as the EU challenges show, Instagram will have to overcome something that a handful of privacy and security features alone can’t change: the underlying trust in its parent company, which has faced controversy over how it handles user data since the Cambridge Analytica scandal. 2018.

Also, Threads needs to convince a critical mass of users that it is not only reliable, but relevant. The magic of Twitter was that it was a place where world leaders with enormous power, snarky writers, A-list celebrities and ordinary netizens could all talk to each other about the news of the day. For Threads to have the same effect, it needs the culture starters who can create compelling short 500 character posts.

Unlike Instagram itself, Twitter’s social currency is words, not images. Meta has invited big celebrities to join an early version of the app. Already big names such as Malala Yousafzai, Shakira and Gordon Ramsay have used it, Meta confirmed. Threads may have the best chance of any Twitter competitor yet, and it will need more of the kind of heavyweights whose words matter, and the users who follow them.