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In a significant stride towards expanding its social media empire, Meta, the tech giant formerly known as Facebook, launched Threads last week. Threads joins Facebook and Instagram as Meta social media sites where people can interact, communicate, and share experiences.
What differentiates Threads from Facebook and Instagram is Threads’ focus on people connecting using text, similar to Twitter. In its first few days, Threads signed up over 70 million users, which resulted in Twitter threatening legal action against Meta Threads.
About Meta Threads
In its announcement of Threads, Meta explained: “Our vision with Threads is to take what Instagram does best and expand that to text, creating a positive and creative space to express your ideas. Just like on Instagram, with Threads you can follow and connect with friends and creators who share your interests – including the people you follow on Instagram and beyond. And you can use our existing suite of safety and user controls.”
At launch, Threads became available in over 100 countries via apps for Android and iOS (iPhone and iPad), though is currently unavailable in the European Union. Threads doesn’t have a website available yet, but you can go to threads.net for a QR code to download the Threads app.
Meta envisions Threads to be a “nice” social media platform filled with positive posts.
Meta said in its announcement, “We built Threads with tools to enable positive, productive conversations. You can control who can mention you or reply to you within Threads. Like on Instagram, you can add hidden words to filter out replies to your threads that contain specific words. You can unfollow, block, restrict or report a profile on Threads by tapping the three-dot menu, and any accounts you’ve blocked on Instagram will automatically be blocked on Threads.”
As Threads is in its infancy, it doesn’t yet have features such as direct messages, bookmarks, trending topics, or polls. Threads does have a search feature that you can use to find people, topics, and keywords of interest to you.
You can reply to posts, like them with a heart, repost them, and share them with others.
If you’re looking for an alternative to Twitter or simply want to check out Threads, you can easily sign up for a Threads account, especially if you already have an Instagram account.
Note that there are reports of people being unable to delete their Threads accounts without deleting their Instagram accounts too:
See Wired, How Threads’ Privacy Policy Compares to Twitter’s (and Its Rivals’)
How to Begin Using Meta Threads
If you want to give Threads a try, download the Threads app from Google Play or Apple’s App Store. The app will guide you through the initial setup process. You can sign up using your Instagram account if you have one.
After logging in, you can customize your Threads profile. Add a profile picture, write a bio, and provide any other details you wish to share with the Threads community. This is your chance to personalize your profile and make a memorable first impression.
When you’ve finished setting up your Threads profile, you can begin connecting with others and exploring the platform’s features. Use the search functionality to find friends, creators, and communities of interest. Follow users, join groups, and engage in conversations to expand your network within the Threads community.
You can post messages on Threads up to 500 characters long, and add links, photos, and videos up to 5 minutes in length. Your Threads feed includes content posted by accounts you follow and recommended content from new creators you haven’t discovered yet.
Your Thoughts
Have you signed up for Threads yet? Do you like Threads as an alternative to Twitter? What features would you like Threads to add?
Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!
If you’ve joined Threads and want to share your username, add it to your comment along with what topics you plan to be posting about on Threads. My Threads username is @wonderoftech and I will be posting about tech!
