Instagram’s Threads, Aiming To Take On Rival Twitter, Goes Live – Update
UPDATED with launch: Instagram’s text-based Threads launched Wednesday at 4 p.m. PT. The Meta app was built “for sharing text updates and joining public conversations,” according to the blog post unveiling the launch.
The Threads website on Wednesday featured only a QR code sending users to their app stores to download the app.
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Users can log in using their existing Instagram account. The company said posts can be up to 500 characters long and include links, photos and videos up to 5 minutes in length.
Originally, Meta said the app was “expected” to be available on Thursday.
PREVIOUSLY, July 3 PM: Twitter users frustrated with the changes in the Elon Musk-led social media platform will now have the option to try Instagram’s Threads.
The app appeared in Apple’s iOS App Store and is expected to launch on July 6. A similar search in Android’s Google Play Store did not yield any results for Threads, as of this writing. iOS users can “get” the app now and it will download to their device once it is made available.
“Say more with Threads – Instagram’s text-based conversation app,” reads the app’s description. “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.”
A bonus feature of Threads is that Instagram users can transfer their username over to the new platform and won’t have to create a new profile making it a seamless transition.
The launch of Threads comes as Twitter users look for alternatives after Musk implemented viewing limits on the digital platform.
Musk said that the limits were put in place “to address extreme levels of data scraping & system manipulation.”
The initial limits on Twitter had verified users constrained to reading 6000 posts a day, unverified users to 600 posts a day and new unverified accounts could only read 300 posts a day. By the end of the day, Musk reported that the limits were raised to 10k posts for verified users, 1k for unverified users and 500 for new accounts.
See a preview for Threads in the screenshots below.
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