Mark Zuckerberg is taking his rivalry with Elon Musk to another social media platform, launching the Threads app, which is expected to rival Twitter. Musk bought Twitter last year for $44 billion.
Threads attracted 10 million sign-ups in its first seven hours, Zuckerberg posted on the new platform.
What is Threads?
According to the Instagram-based conversation app, Threads “is where communities come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to what’ll 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 of your own to share your ideas, opinions and creativity with the world.”
You can download it from the Apple store or Google Play.
Jennifer Lopez, Jack Black, Kylie Minogue, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gwen Stefani and Shakira have already joined, as well as politicians Mike Pence, Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, according to the Washington Post.
Much like Twitter, you can like, repost, reply to or quote a thread, and see the number of likes and replies your post has received. Unlike Twitter’s 280 character limit, however, Threads gives you 500. You can also include include links, photos and videos up to five minutes long.
Threads launched Wednesday night in more than 100 countries — including the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada and Japan — but not the European Union. That’s because the app collects the same user information as Instagram, the Associated Press reported, namely health, financial, contacts, browsing and search history, location data, purchases and “sensitive info,” according to its data privacy disclosure on the App Store.
How do you join?
If you already have an Instagram account, you can use it to log on to Threads. You can use your existing usernames and follow the same accounts on the new app.
For example, if you’re already following The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Instagram (@ajcnews, www.instagram.com/ajcnews/) you will automatically follow the news organization on Threads (www.threads.net/@ajcnews).
You can also follow accounts not on your Instagram list by using the magnifying glass.
New users will have to go to Instagram and create an account. Both apps are free to use.
It’s that simple.
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