There is blood in the water. And not in the form of that ridiculous twitter exchange with billionaires Musk and Zuckerberg trading barbs to set up a cage match. I’m talking about that other fight brewing between Twitter and Meta, with the latter’s new product: Threads
And yes, I am on there too
*This gif is the perfect move analogy per tech reporter Kara Swisher, who said in response to Elon on Twitter: “How to lose a product in 10 months”
Meta has been quietly working on launching a new app, Threads, which acts as a competitor to the dumpster fire that is Twitter now that Musk has ruined it (and sent users and advertisers running for the hills) - it is unlikely that the companies newly appointed CEO Linda Yaccarino can save it either. Last week, Musk randomly announced that “To address extreme levels of data scraping & system manipulation, we’ve applied the following temporary limits…..Unverified accounts (limited to reading) to 600 posts/day”. Of course, he wrecked the original verified/unverified systems months ago, letting paying trolls take over the platform with spam and hateful rhetoric, not to mentioned dismantling just about everything else that worked before, rendering the platform practically unrecognizable. But I digress. Not many believed that was the actual reason, that in fact there may have been a coding error, but whatever it was, Threads has seized the moment. So whaat is it, and will it compete with the other alternatives being built like Post News, Blue Sky, Mastodon, or is it well beyond?
A listing for Threads appeared last week on Apple’s App Store, and it made its debut on Wednesday July 5th, and its been said by Zuck that 30 millions users signed up on its first day. It is billed as a “text-based conversation app” that is linked to Instagram, so you can easily connect (or disconnect) with everyone you follow there. The best summation I saw on this was from Luvvie:
In recent months, Twitter has appeared to take aim at services offered by Meta. In May, Twitter added encrypted messaging and announced plans to offer voice calls – both key features of Meta-owned WhatsApp. And while Meta is notorious for taking the creativity of other platforms to use on theirs (ie. Snapchat, tiktok), their timing has always be impeccable. Will you try it? Here are some reads and listens:
NYT Podcast Hard Fork interview with Instagrams Adam Mosseri
NYT: Threads, Instagram’s ‘Twitter Killer,’ Has Arrived
The Verge: Why Instagram is taking on Twitter with Threads
Platformer: Meta unspools Threads
Fast Company: What is Threads? Instagram’s Twitter alternative to launch July 6
CNBC: Meta launches Instagram Threads in a direct challenge to Twitter
More to come…
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