Last week, TechCity reported that Instagram was developing its own alternative to Twitter codenamed “P92 Barcelona.” In a recent update however, the app, called Threads, is scheduled to launch on July 6th, as it is already listed on the Apple App Store.
The app is compatible with only iOS14 or later and iPhone users can pre-order the app before July 6th. There is no word on when it will come to Android.
Threads will function just like Twitter, allowing users to post text-based content that can be liked, replied to, and shared. According to some screenshots from App store, and per our last report, users will have the ability to follow the same accounts they follow on Instagram and maintain their existing usernames. While Instagram parent company, Meta has not made any comment on Threads, its release of Threads couldn’t have been more timely.
Twitter users have witnessed significant, unsettling changes since the appointment of new CEO Elon Musk. Some of its legacy users raised concerns about relaxed content moderation policies and the introduction of a monthly subscription fee for verification. The platform’s recent decision to restrict the number of tweets verified and unverified users can view per day has sparked negative and funny reactions and in fact led to an exodus of sorts to Donald Trump’s Truth social media app, Mastodon and former Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey’s Bluesky app. While the numbers on these apps may not be astronomical, the vacuum Twitter has created could give room for Mark Zuckerberg’s Threads to sweep a lot of users in.
The fact that Threads makes it possible to transfer one’s existing Instagram stats could potentially attract a substantial portion of disenchanted Twitter users impacting Twitter’s popularity in the social media landscape.
On privacy, Threads looks like it will be collecting a ton of data from users which raises data privacy and security concerns. The extensive collection of personal information could cause problems of data misuse, unauthorized access, and potential breaches, but we will wait to hear from Meta.
Threads is an Instagram app where “communities come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to what’ll be trending tomorrow.” Beyond Zuckerberg’s penchant for copying other people’s ideas and making a huge business of it is the possibility of users choosing not to make the transition because of the utopia that is Instagram. “Those people are out of touch with reality,” some Twitter users have teased, “they just want to enjoy pictures and dance.” Perhaps they will be able to repurpose their long post captions into Threads.