Discussions: Twitter competitor is now available

Mark Zuckerberg, owner of Meta, announced the early launch of Threads, a competitor to Twitter, this Wednesday (5/6). The app became available on the App Store and Google Play at 20:00 in Brazil, although the launch date was originally scheduled for Thursday (6/7).

The billionaire owner of Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp presented his new application in an inaugural post, in which he wrote only: “Let’s do this. Welcome to Threads.”.

Released simultaneously in nearly 100 countries, Threads is a text-based conversation app that is remarkably similar to Twitter, taking its name from the “threads” of social media conversations.

Integration with Instagram

A strength of Threads is its integration with Instagram, which means that the application starts plugging into a base of hundreds of millions of existing accounts, without having to start from scratch like other alternatives to Twitter, which have failed to distinguish themselves much .in the market.

Several Twitter-like apps like Bluesky and Mastodon have been released in recent years, but it’s possible that Threads, as part of the Instagram platform, poses the biggest threat to Twitter to date.

When connected, Instagram users can keep the same username on Threads, and during setup they can also choose to follow the same accounts they already follow on Instagram.

The app lets you share text posts of up to 500 characters, as well as photos and videos (up to 5 minutes long). But it still doesn’t include a direct messaging feature.

For now, the app doesn’t even have a web version, to be used on personal computers.

In return, Meta ensures that key accessibility features available on Instagram today, such as support for screen readers and AI-generated image descriptions, are already enabled on Threads.

Additionally, future plans include Threads compatibility with ActivityPub, the open social networking protocol established by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and supported by applications such as Mastodon and WordPress. “We are working to make Threads soon compatible with open and interoperable social networks that we believe will shape the future of the internet,” reads a product announcement.

twitter crisis

The launch of Threads comes at a time of crisis for Twitter, which started charging for verified accounts and over the weekend imposed a limit on the amount of posts users can read, claiming it needs to control ‘extreme levels’ of information extraction. platform data. With this, users started complaining that they are not able to use the platform as before. Many complain that some features have become unusable.

In contrast, Threads presents itself as a free service with no restrictions on the amount of posts each user can read. “Threads is where communities come together to discuss everything from today’s hot topics to what’s trending tomorrow,” states the app’s description on the App Store.

Source: Terra

Ashley

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