How different is Threads from Twitter? Will it be able to take on Elon Musk’s platform?

The rivalry between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg just got more intense. In a big move to take on Twitter, Facebook’s parent company Meta officially unveiled a new app called Threads. Some techies are calling it a “Twitter killer”. Threads , which has been launched as a companion to Meta’s photo-sharing network Instagram, is intended to be a space for public conversations. This has been Twitter’s USP all these years. In a post on his Threads account, Zuckerberg said, “I think there should be a public conversations app with 1 billion+ people on it. Twitter has had the opportunity to do this but hasn’t nailed it. Hopefully we will.” “The vision for Threads is to create an option and friendly public space for conversation,” the Meta CEO said after the launch. “We hope to take what Instagram does best and create a new experience around text, ideas, and discussing what’s on your mind.” Ten million have signed up for the app within seven hours of the launch. But will Threads be able to break the Twitter monopoly? What is Threads? The Threads app is built by Instagram and was initially expected to launch later in the month. The launch was then moved to Thursday but then was finally unveiled on Wednesday. Meta calls it a “positive and creative space” to express ideas. It has been built to share text updates and join public conversations. “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,” Meta wrote in a company blog post on Wednesday. [caption id=“attachment_12833762” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] In this photo illustration, the Threads logo is displayed on a cell phone on 5 July in San Anselmo, California, ahead of the launch. AFP[/caption] How does the app work? To sign up for Threads, users need to have an Instagram account. Their Instagram handle should be their username on the new app. Those verified on Instagram will get a blue tick on Threads as well. And like the photo-sharing network, users can set their accounts on Threads as public or private. Those under 16 (or 18 in some countries) will be defaulted into a private profile. Users can follow the same accounts they do on Instagram and find more people who care about the same things. How is Threads different from Twitter? Threads is not that different from Twitter when it comes to functions. The posts on Threads can be up to 500 characters long and include links, photos, and videos up to five minutes in length, according to Meta. On Twitter, the character limit for regular users is 280. Twitter Blue subscribers have a maximum tweet length of 10,000 characters and support for bold and italic text formatting. The feed of Threads is algorithmic like Instagram. It is populated by people users follow and the content they consume and recommendations depending on it. With Twitter, users have the option to choose between an algorithmic feed and a chronological-based one of only the people they follow. Unlike Twitter, Threads does not have a direct messaging feature. However, the app is newly launched and Instagram said that it might add features to Threads if users ask for them. [caption id=“attachment_12833802” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] A Twitter app icon on a mobile phone is displayed in Philadelphia. The popularity of the microblogging site has taken a hit after Elon Musk’s takeover in October 2022. File photo/AP[/caption] The big difference between Threads and Twitter is that the former in the future will work across multiple apps. Instagram wants to it easier for Threads to operate seamlessly across platforms which could appeal to creators and influencers so they do not have to start from scratch on each app, according to a report in The New York Times (NYT). Mastodon, another social network, functions similarly. “If a creator builds up a sizable number of followers on Threads, for instance, they could ostensibly take those followers with them to other platforms that are built on the same technology. That would make it less risky for creators and could free them from feeling like they are “stuck” on one platform,” Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, told NYT.

Can Threads take on Twitter? Since Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover last year, several changes have been introduced which are driving users to rival social media platforms. The latest change was announced on Monday, according to which only verified users will be able to access Tweetdeck , a customisable dashboard often used by businesses. The company has also started limiting the number of tweets people can read, a decision which has not gone down well with users. The alternatives to Twitter are Mastodon, Post, T2 and Jack Dorsey’s Bluesky but they have not been able to match the popularity of Musk’s microblogging website. This is an advantage to Threads, which has been launched at a time when Twitter’s popularity has taken a hit. [caption id=“attachment_12833822” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Threads saw 10 million sign-ups within just seven hours of its launch. Meta[/caption] Analysts said investors were salivating over the possibility that Threads’ ties to Instagram might give it a built-in user base and advertising apparatus, which could siphon ad dollars from Twitter as its new CEO tries to revive the microblogging company’s struggling business, according to a Reuters report. “Investors can’t help but be a little excited about the prospect that Meta really has a ‘Twitter-Killer’ poised to launch on the app store," Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at investment platform firm AJ Bell, told the news agency. Meta stocks closed up three per cent on Wednesday ahead of the launch, outpacing gains by competitor tech companies as the broader market edged down. Twitter’s value has taken a hit since Musk brought it for $44 billion in October 2022 and has seen an exodus of advertisers. In such a scenario, brands will not hesitate to invest in Threads to cash in on the early buzz. The timing is opportune for Meta to deliver a blow, as months of Musk’s chaotic decision-making has roiled Twitter, Matt Navarra, a social media consultant who has worked with Meta, Google and Pinterest told Reuters. “It’s going to be more palatable and brand safe than what’s being offered over on Twitter,” he added. What are the challenges before Threads? Twitter’s success revolves around the fact that it focuses on news. Instagram is more of a visual app. Jasmine Enberg, a principal analyst at Insider Intelligence, told Reuters, “The main use cases for Twitter still remain keeping up with news and world events. I find it hard to imagine that the most avid loyal Twitter users who go to Twitter for that type of culture will defect and go immediately to Threads.” That’s not all. Meta’s past attempts to create copycat platforms have failed, the most notable being the Lasso app aimed to take on short video rival TikTok. [caption id=“attachment_12833842” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] The vision for Threads is to create an option and friendly public space for conversation, said Mark Zuckerberg. File photo/AFP[/caption] Interestingly, a new study by Montclair University from March finds that to excel and become profitable, tech CEOs will need to focus on five significant areas – visual content, AI, building a network, broadening and diversifying revenue streams, and becoming the “everything app”. “The future of the industry overall remains bright, yet which companies will continue or emerge as future winners depends on how well they can deal with these challenges,” the authors of the study write, according to a report in Fortune. Photos and short videos are the best tools for a fast-growing social media model with TikTok being a clear winner in building short-form content. But what matters is how the content is curated with the help of AI. When it comes to a network, the bigger the better. Meta has an advantage here. It’s the fuel of Meta’s empire, wrote the authors of the study, but new platforms have embraced it too. But innovation helps as Instagram did by focusing on photos and Snapchat with disappearing posts. “Their successes show that even a small tweak in the business model or platform design can have a huge impact on success in the social media industry,” the authors said. Advertising might not be the revenue stream of the future, the Fortune report says. Subscription services like Twitter Blue and Snapchat Plus could significantly “enhance the monetisation” of social media platforms. According to the report, the platform that becomes the “everything app” could win the race. The future of Twitter, and Threads for that matter, depends on whether Musk can make the envisioned everything app. For now, Zuckerberg might have the upper hand. But it remains to be seen if he can beat Musk in the big battle. With inputs from agencies