New Delhi: Threads, the latest app released by Meta on 6 July, has already seen over 70 million signups. This new app, which is different from Instagram, is less of a visual medium and has a textual appeal, and is being seen as a direct competitor to the social media app Twitter.
However, Instagram head Adam Mosseri has just posted on 7 July on Threads saying that the intention to launch this app was not to replace Twitter.
Threads is an app which is built by the Instagram team, for sharing text updates. One can log in using their Instagram account and posts can be up to 500 characters long and include links, photos, and videos up to five minutes in length.
Threads is, in a way, a derivative of Instagram, where both the accounts are linked. In fact, one can’t delete their Threads account without deleting their Instagram account.
“Threads is powered by Instagram, so right now it is just one account, but we’re looking into a way to delete your Threads account separately,” Mosseri said in another post. In fact, the logo, too, is in Instagram Sans, a new global typeface and font family. It’s a single unbroken line, inspired by the loop seen in the app when a thread is started.
“The goal is to create a public square for communities on Instagram that never really embraced Twitter and for communities on Twitter (and other platforms) that are interested in a less angry place for conversations, but not all of Twitter,” he wrote, Friday.
Users are now looking at Threads, as an Instagram version of Twitter where people can boldly express their views, have conversations and disseminate news.
But Mosseri had different plans for what he wanted Threads to be. “Politics and hard news are inevitably going to show up on Threads – they have on Instagram as well, to some extent – but we’re not going to do anything to encourage those verticals,” he added.
Also read: 48 hours of signing up on Threads—neat & accessible but not a copy-paste version of Twitter