With all the changes, new charges, and erratic Twitter strategies, Mark Zuckerberg saw an opportunity and announced Threads. Threads is a “new” social network within the Meta ecosystem, and the quotation marks are because the platform is a carbon copy of Twitter.
Now in addition to Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp, there is Threads. Here’s all you need to know about this new platform.
What Is Threads?
According to the platform’s description on the App Store: “Threads is where communities come together to discuss everything from the topics that interest you today to what will be trending tomorrow. Whatever interests you, you can follow and connect directly with your favorite creators and others who love the same things, or create loyal followers to share your ideas, opinions, and creativity with the world.”
Aha, just like Twitter! It works like Twitter, but instead of posting tweets, you post threads. Instead of tweeting, you thread. Like Ryan’s Wulf in The Office, pretty much… same thing, different random name…
Features include public and private profiles, you can limit who replies to your thread, and you can post threads with images or videos. At least for now, Threads doesn’t have a private messenger, but it will probably be added shortly. Meta owns our communications, so hopefully they will soon incorporate it and standardize it with their other messengers.
How to Open an Account in Threads?
For now, there is no online platform, it only works as a mobile application. To open your Threads account, you must enter threads.net and scan the QR Code that appears there. You will automatically be redirected to the App Store, and there you can download the application for iOS.
To sign up, Threads offers the option to link your Instagram profile to this new network. Although it belongs to Meta, the company has made sure to specify that Threads is an app that belongs to Instagram.
The official launch was scheduled for July 6, but there are already users reporting the release of the app and their accounts.
Threads: First Impressions
We already have access to Threads. In principle it looks like Twitter, it operates like Twitter, but it doesn’t necessarily work like Twitter. For example, I just logged in, the app showed me content: who are these people, and why am I reading this?
It’s not yet clear how the Threads algorithm works, but it probably follows the trend of bidding content you might be interested in, like the “For You” section of Tiktok and Twitter.
Presumably, as you use and interact within Threads, the algorithm refines the content until it’s close to what users enjoy most. Once I followed acquaintances, the content was interspersed between users I don’t follow and those I do.
Another issue that has been infuriating is notifications. It is configurable and offers similar alternatives to TikTok, so you don’t stay glued to your phone consuming Threads. Ok, but it’s hard to set up and ambitious for Mark Zuckerberg to assume that we’re going to be captivated by an app that’s a clone of something that already exists.
Did the World Need Another Twitter?
It’s too early to anticipate the future of this social platform, but we’ll let you know if the world needed another platform like this or not… and Threads ends up in the heaven of failed social platforms like Vine and Periscope.
This story was written in Spanish by Cora Bravo in Cultura Colectiva
