American multinational technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, owned by Mark Zuckerberg, on Wednesday launched a new app, Threads, which is seen as a direct challenge to Twitter.
Within hours of its launch, Threads garnered millions of users from across the world, including top celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Jennifer Lopez.
The new app closely resembles Twitter visually, although some of the wordings have been changed, with retweets called “reposts” and tweets called “threads”.
The app is currently topping the chart as the most downloaded social networking app with over 100 million downloads in seven hours as announced by Zuckerberg.
Here are nine things to note about Meta’s latest app:
1. Thread users will need an Instagram account to log in. Once they have signed up, they can choose to follow the same accounts they follow on Instagram, if they too have joined the new app.
2. Posts on Threads can be 500 characters long, compared with 280 for most Twitter users, and videos of up to five minutes in length can be posted while a post can be shared as a link on other platforms.
3. Users can unfollow, block, restrict or report others. Users can also filter out replies with certain words in them.
4. Threads allows users to follow and connect directly with their favourite content creators, entertainers, personalities, etc.
5. Since Threads users’ profile details are linked to their Instagram accounts, any changes made in their Threads profile will reflect in their Instagram profile.
6. When a user deletes the Threads account, his or her Instagram account is deleted.
7. When a user deactivates their Threads profile, their content and profile will be hidden from view by other users, but it will remain on the Threads Servers.
8. Users can also customize the apps setting and use control to manage who can see contents, reply threads and mention them.
9. Every content uploaded or shared by a user must comply with Instagram community guidelines.
