Meta, the company behind Facebook and Instagram, has created a new rival to Twitter - called Threads. The app is linked to Instagram but allows users to post up to 500 characters of text and up to five minutes of video and links, as well as pictures
The app launched at midnight on Thursday and Mark Zuckerberg said there had been two million sign-ups for the app in just two hours.
To join Threads, you first need to have an Instagram account., You then need to use your phone or tablet to download the Threads Your Threads account will then ask if you want to import your bio from Instagram, will ask if you want a public or private account and will ask who you want to follow.
Choose whether to allow notifications or not - and your account is active.
Like on Instagram can follow and connect with friends and influencers with similar interests. In the UK, all under 18s will be defaulted onto a private profile when they join. Someone’s feed on the app includes threads from people they follow as well as recommended content from creators they have not yet heard of.
Threads posts can be shared on a user’s Instagram story and as a link on other platforms.
People can control who mentions them and who can reply to them on the new app, replies to threads containing specific words can be filtered out and other users can be unfollowed, blocked, restricted and reported.
Any accounts a user has blocked on Instagram will automatically be blocked on the new app.
Instagram’s safety guidelines will be enforced on the new platform, Meta said.
Eventually, the California-based company wants it to be possible for people without a Threads account to interact on the platform, which it hopes will usher in a “new era of diverse and interconnected networks”.
If and when this happens, if a user has a public profile their posts will be accessible from other apps while if they have a private one they will have to approve new followers.
