Threads is the fastest-growing social media platform of all time, reaching 100 million users in just five days. The platform was launched by Meta to compete with Twitter after Twitter was purchased by Elon Musk and had a precipitous decline in users and quality. While it ties directly into Instagram and is built on the same technology, Threads is intended to be a town square for the internet. But can a town square thrive when it’s filled suddenly with millions of voices and moderated in the same way that made Instagram a place that was friendly for brands and few others?
At the moment, it seems Meta’s “AI studio” will let people make private and public bots, tuned for duties like personal shopping, trip-planning, meme generation, and helping users “never miss a romantic connection.” (I assume that last one is designed to trawl Craigslist Missed Connections for you.)
Alessandro Paluzzi posted these screenshots in a thread where he’s been tracking the feature since January.
The app now has 150 million monthly users, Mark Zuckerberg said Wednesday during Meta’s earnings call. There were almost 100 million monthly Threads users in October.
The metric I’d really like to see, however, is daily users. Meta is juicing the visibility of Threads posts in the Instagram feed, and I’ve heard that a lot of user growth has been coming from that drive-by traffic. If it really wants to kill X, Meta still needs to build a sticky experience that more people come to daily.
Meta is apparently giving raffle tactics a go to get creators posting more on Threads, according to The Information:
Creators have to post at least once a day on Threads for 10 straight days to be eligible, and Instagram encouraged them to use the hashtag #GoodVibesonThreads to make it easier for staff to “find and share” their posts. Then, creators are entered into a drawing for 10 prizes, which are worth up to $500 each.
[The Information]
It’s not just us Swifties who have been waiting impatiently for April 19th — The Tortured Poets Department (TTPD) release day. It appears Mark Zuckerberg had a carefully worded pun locked and loaded for today, which also marks the pop superstar’s debut on Threads.
While US lawmakers take aim at TikTok, The Wall Street Journal reports that several popular messaging apps were removed by Apple at the request of the Chinese government which will make it harder for people in the country to download the apps for use with a VPN. Reuters notes that Meta apps like Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram are still available.
Here’s Apple’s statement on the matter:
“The Cyberspace Administration of China ordered the removal of these apps from the China storefront based on their national security concerns. We are obligated to follow the laws in the countries where we operate, even when we disagree.”
[The Wall Street Journal]
Now, Threads posts with Reels (like this one of Becca Farsace checking out the new Insta360 cam) viewed in the Android or iOS app will display the video in line instead of burdening viewers with the responsibility of an additional click. Web viewers, however, will still need to use their imagination or click through.
While the “recent” filter should make it easier to find real-time search results, the “top” option shows popular posts related to your search. The test is only rolling out to a small number of users, according to Instagram head Adam Mosseri.
A test Meta is running on some accounts puts a messaging button on the profile page with an in-app messaging box.
As Meta told Engadget, this is still using Instagram’s DM system and there are currently no plans to build a standalone messaging experience on Threads. Even still, a step in the right direction.
Because of a temporary injunction (PDF) from the Turkish Competition Authority (TCA), which ruled that linking Threads and Instagram data without user opt-in abuses Meta’s social media dominance. Turkish Threads users can either delete their profiles or deactivate them until / if the service gets turned back on.
TechCrunch notes the country had previously fined Meta $18.6 million in 2022 for data-sharing across its apps.
Meta briefly blocked links to The Kansas Reflector, News From The States, and The Handbasket due to a “security error,” spokesperson Andy Stone said. The Handbasket writer Marisa Kabas says Meta wouldn’t give further details about the blocks or send a follow up notice to users who saw a security warning.
Reflector readers noticed they were unable to share an op-ed critical of Facebook published Thursday. On Friday, The Verge was able to replicate the “Link not allowed” error on Threads, though other Reflector links could post.
[Threads]
While Threads continues to test the waters of federation, the team is working on other features too. Continuing a push that started with “NBA Threads” outreach events around summer league and All-Star Weekend, and snagging posts from newsbreakers like Woj and Shams, it’s now testing live scores of NBA games and plans to add other sports.
Of course, it’s March, so why not start with the Women’s and Men’s NCAA basketball tournaments and bring in the NBA during the playoffs?
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced that the feature is no longer in testing, which means you’ll now get to keep tabs on what people are talking about from the app’s search tab and For You feed.
Yes, Windows users can get the Threads app Mark Zuckerberg is showing here from the Microsoft Store
But once it’s installed, you’ll get the same desktop web app experience (loaded in Microsoft’s Edge web browser) that we’ve had access to since August.
Once Apple released the Vision Pro, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg responded with a video saying his company’s Quest 3 headset is “the better product, period.”
Now he’s back with more takes, posting this on Threads in response to a post that said, “Apple is selling pretty much the device Meta wants to reach in 3-5 years.”
I don’t think we’re saying the devices are the same. We’re saying Quest is better. If our devices weigh as much as theirs in 3-5 years, or have the motion blur theirs has, or the lack of precision inputs, etc, then that means we’ll have regressed significantly.
Yes, their resolution is higher, but they paid for that with many other product tradeoffs that make their device worse in most ways. That’s not what we aspire to.
[Threads]
One of the creators of the ActivityPub protocol, Evan Prodromou, is now beta testing the ability to cross-post from Threads to Mastodon. He’s the first non-Meta employee I’m aware of with this feature enabled, which suggests that we’re getting closer to a wider rollout.
In other Threads news: Everyone now has the ability to save drafts and access the phone camera directly in the app.
It works like bookmarking on X or saving posts on Instagram and comes after Meta ran a “limited test” of the feature earlier this month.
It’s been 12 days since Meta announced it was testing a way to easily follow what people are talking about on Threads, and now many users are reporting seeing it — including our own Richard Lawler.
I don’t have it yet, because I’m cursed. If you do, you’ll see “Today’s topics” either between posts in the For You feed or in the search tab.
Two changes spotted by app researchers show how the platforms are testing tweaks — X with carousel-style image galleries instead of grids, and Threads with buttons spaced apart.
Nima Owji shared the change on X and Alessandro Paluzzi pointed out the Threads update. Meta insisted that Threads isn’t an X clone — but at least in terms of look and feel, the two are getting closer and closer.
Zuck says both features are in testing, and Meta just forwarded us the below:
Drafts: allows you to save in-progress posts for future editing and posting.
Threads Camera: opens your phone’s camera directly in the Threads composer, making it easier to share photos on Threads.
Today’s release of Draft and Camera are initial tests. Currently, you can save one draft post, and you can take one photo per post with the Threads Camera.
Correction, 7:34PM ET: Meta originally told us you could take videos too, but now says videos aren’t available yet. If you don’t see the options, it’s because “This is a global test with a limited number of people.”
For a few years now, Meta’s Oversight Board has had the power to (very slowly, it seems) issue decisions determining how Facebook and Instagram should be moderated, and soon, the body will also be responsible for overseeing Threads.
Meta is only rolling out the test to its Facebook iOS app, and not in the EU, the company confirmed to TechCrunch today. Threads posts already show up on Facebook, provided you don’t opt out.
TechCrunch writes that when user whimchic tried the feature in the Facebook iOS app, the post went to both platforms, but without any indication on Threads that it was a cross-post.
The feature will work similarly to bookmarks on Instagram, allowing you to save posts and look at them later. It’s still in a “limited test” though, so you might not have it right away.
The buzziest new thing in social networking is a big deal. It’s also very confusing. And it’s not actually new. Let’s talk about it.
That comes courtesy of Alessandro Paluzzi, who frequently reverse engineers and reveals Threads and Instagram features. The new option lets you turn fediverse sharing on and off at will and you can easily copy your username formatted for the decentralized Activity Pub social protocol.
Instagram boss Adam Mosseri said recently that Threads users will also be able to follow and interact with fediverse accounts from Threads, though their accounts will have to be public to do so.
Instagram head Adam Mosseri confirmed in a post today that the Threads team is working on “surfacing trends”, so that new feature is definitely on the way.
Last month, leaker Alessandro Paluzzi posted a screenshot of a feature entitled “Today’s topics” that seems similar to X’s “Trending Topics”, which display topics that users are engaging with the most. He said it could also include reviews by specialists, to avoid trends like “Taylor Swift AI.”
