As announced earlier this week, Meta today officially launched Threads – its new microblogging social network that aims to compete with Twitter. However, although Threads is a new app, it exists under the branding and structure of Instagram, so users can log in and find their friends more easily there. Read on as we detail how to download and use Threads.
What is Threads?
Meta has been working on Threads for some time now, and it became known after some reports in May about the “Barcelona” project. Just like Twitter Mastodon, and Bluesky, Threads lets users share text, photos, and videos with their followers.
“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,” says the app description.
Sign-in can be as simple as pressing a button
Threads is tied to Instagram for a reason. To make the app easier to use, Meta is using Instagram accounts as the login method for Threads. This means that if you already have the Instagram app installed on your phone, all you need to do is press a button to confirm that you want to join the new app.
After that, the app asks you if you want to import things like your bio and profile picture from Instagram or if you want to create a new one for Threads. Another important detail is that you can choose to automatically follow all your Instagram friends, or you can skip this part and choose who you will follow there manually.
And while your account there is public by default, you can make it private if you want.
Threads work pretty much the same way as you would expect. There’s the home page with the timeline, a search tab, a button for composing a new post, notifications, and the user profile. You can customize notifications, hide specific words, block other users’ accounts, and share your profile with others.
Right now, Threads is only available for iOS and Android. However, there’s a simple web interface so you can share posts with anyone.
What doesn’t work?
After using Threads for a few minutes, a couple of things bothered me. For instance, when you don’t follow anyone, Threads shows a bunch of posts from random people, like celebrities and creators. There’s no option to see your timeline in chronological order either.
Another detail that may upset some users is that there’s no Threads app for iPad. And given that even Instagram doesn’t have an iPad app, my hopes of seeing Threads on the iPad are low. Threads will also be compatible with the fediverse in the future, but this is something that’s not available right now.
9to5Mac’s Take
As Elon Musk’s latest decisions when it comes to his leadership of Twitter have been rather controversial, many people (including myself and my colleagues) have been waiting for a new alternative to the social network. I’ve tried Mastodon and Bluesky, but they’ll never have a huge mass appeal like Twitter.
Meta, on the other hand, knows exactly how to build a successful social network – whether you like the company or not. And while I’m not a number one fan of Meta, I’m excited to already see a bunch of personal friends and fellow journalists joining Threads.
You can download Threads for free on the App Store. It requires an iPhone running iOS 14 or later.
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