Right now, Threads has no paid subscription levels. Also, the app has no direct messages and no option to filter your feed to only show accounts you follow. — Bloomberg
Have you heard about Threads, Meta’s competitor to Twitter?
The app launched last week and has already signed up more than 100 million users.
What exactly is Threads, and how can you sign up?
According to Meta (the parent company of Facebook and Instagram), Threads is an “app built by the Instagram team for sharing with text.”
Here's the full description from the company: “Our vision with Threads is to take what Instagram does best and expand that to text, creating a positive and creative space to express your ideas. Just like on Instagram, with Threads you can follow and connect with friends and creators who share your interests - including the people you follow on Instagram and beyond. And you can use our existing suite of safety and user controls.”
If you are aware of Instagram, you know it is a photo-based social media app. It isn’t built for having a conversation with a person or group of people.
To join Threads, you’ll need an Instagram account. Threads uses your Instagram login and password, and during setup, you can opt to follow the same accounts in Threads that you follow on Instagram. You can also pick and choose which Instagram users you’d like to follow in Threads.
Once you get logged in and follow some other users, you’ll find things look familiar if you’ve ever used Twitter.
This is social media, so besides the people you choose to follow, your Threads feed will also feature recommended content from new creators.
Posts can be up to 500 characters long, and you can include links, photos GIFs and videos up to five minutes in length. You can attach up to 10 media items in each post.
There are some differences between Threads and Twitter.
Right now, Threads has no paid subscription levels. Also, the app has no direct messages and no option to filter your feed to only show accounts you follow.
I have yet to see any advertising in my feed, but I’m sure that won’t last long.
Right now, Threads is not a place to go to follow breaking news. There is no way to search through your feed for a topic or hashtag. The only search inside the Threads app is for accounts to follow.
At launch, Threads is only available on mobile devices (iOS and Android). You can view a thread or user’s account in a web browser if you have a link to it, but you can’t log into your account and see your feed from a web browser.
If you go to Threads.net, all you’ll see is a QR code to download the app.
Threads has rolled out to more than 100 countries, but so far this does not include European Union countries due to privacy concerns.
So, if you’re tired of all the changes at Twitter and you’re looking for an alternative, Threads isn’t a bad service to try - but it has some kinks to work out. – Tribune News Service
