What's so great about the Threads app that Meta just launched?

The Threads app has just been officially launched by Meta, Facebook's parent company, promising to be a fierce competitor to Twitter.

Meta officially launches Threads - an app that competes with Twitter. (Source: PYMNTS)

Threads has had a pretty smooth start. According to the company's report, after just one day of launch (July 5), the app had 30 million registrations, including many brands, celebrities, journalists... On the morning of July 6, Threads also entered the App Store rankings and trended on Twitter.

With users increasingly frustrated with Twitter’s changes, Threads could pose a threat to the Elon Musk-owned social network. Twitter has been under increasing criticism for its recent policy of limiting the number of tweets that can be viewed in a day. This gives Meta the opportunity to consolidate its dominance in the social network market and develop a new platform with great potential.

What are threads?

Threads is an app developed by Meta - the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp. Threads has many similarities to Twitter, with an interface mainly for text posts and allowing users to chat directly with each other.

Threads posts are limited to 500 characters or less, and users can respond to, share, and quote other users’ posts. Threads also incorporates many Instagram features and allows users to share posts directly to Instagram Stories.

“The vision for Threads is to create a welcoming public space for conversation,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a Threads post after the launch. “We hope to leverage the strengths of Instagram and create new experiences for writing, ideas, and more.”

Threads accounts are directly linked to Instagram accounts. Users can also set their accounts to public or private.

How to register and delete Threads account

Users sign up for Threads using their existing Instagram accounts. The app retains the same username, password, and account name. Instagram follow lists are also copied to Threads, saving users time setting up and building a platform interface.

Meta hopes to leverage Threads to boost its advertising business. (Source: The New York Times)

Deleting a Threads account, on the other hand, isn't as simple as it sounds. Users can still deactivate their accounts through settings, but the only way to delete Threads is to delete your Instagram account, according to the app's privacy policy.

Many people also expressed concerns about the risk of Threads collecting user information, such as address information, contacts, search history and access history, etc.

Could Threads Be the “Twitter Killer”?

Although it was only released in recent months, Threads is expected to replace Twitter as the number one social platform for online communication. And it very well may come true.

Many Twitter users have expressed their desire for an alternative app since billionaire Elon Musk bought Twitter last year. Frequent errors and policy changes have caused many to stop using the platform.

And Meta is one step ahead of Twitter: It's tapping into its existing Instagram audience. Meta expects to attract at least 2 billion Instagram users worldwide with its new app. Twitter, by comparison, has just over 250 million users.

“This may take time, but I think there should be a live communication app with over a billion users. Twitter hasn’t done it, but I hope we will,” Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a Threads post.

Twitter's new CEO Linda Yaccaro responded to Mark Zuckerberg's comments in a tweet, saying Twitter is "irreplaceable."

Threads' interface is integrated from many different platforms such as Twitter, Instagram,... (Source: CNN)

“We are often imitated, but there will never be another Twitter community,” the post read.

In fact, many of Twitter's competitors have also tried to attract users to sign up for their platforms, but only Threads has the ability to attract many people to join the new platform because of its convenient and easy-to-use interface.

Instagram's CEO also pointed out that the biggest challenge for a newly established social network is not attracting many subscribers, but making them stick around for the long term.

Specifically, Threads has made efforts to prevent repetitive content, harassment, and fake news - problems that Twitter has failed to thoroughly solve, leaving many users frustrated.

The new platform comes after Meta laid off more than 20,000 employees since November, including risk analysts, benefits, policy and user experience staff. It also comes as the 2024 US presidential campaign season is in full swing, with experts warning of a wave of misinformation. Meta said Threads’ community guidelines will be similar to those of its other apps.

Threads' Potential for Meta

For Meta, Threads could be a way to gain more engagement from its existing massive user base from previous platforms.

While there are no ads on the platform yet, Threads is expected to complement Meta's core advertising business, especially after Meta faced challenges from a broader decline in the online advertising market and Apple's privacy changes.

Still, given Twitter's track record, Threads is unlikely to attract as much ad dollars as Meta's other platforms.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/ung-dung-threads-vua-duoc-meta-ra-mat-co-gi-hap-dan-234067.html