Threads: Instagram’s new Twitter-style app
Instagrams Twitter competitor Threads is live, and in less than the first 24 hours of its official launch, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg reports that they already have more than 10 million active users. Again, in less than 24 hours.
I will be covering the first 24 hours re: the launch itself, comparison to other social media apps, and UX.
Threads Launch
Because of the integration with Instagram, if you go over to a user’s Instagram profile and they are on threads—under their name, you'll see a little thread symbol and you'll see the number of user that they are on threads so you can actually track where someone is in the first 10 million users.
Are they in the first million?
Were they in the first 3 million?
Are they in the first 5 million?
People are claiming that early adopter status. And that status symbol and race to get an early number drives early downloads. (The early downloads are then social proof of an explosive launch driving subsequent downloads.)
But more significantly, I think there are a few reasons why this is really a platform to watch, which I’ll get into in competitor apps .
Comparison to Other Apps
So you may have heard people say, and there's a famous quote —to paraphrase—that your brand is what people say about you when you're not in the room. And we know that when it comes to Twitter, even though there are insiders saying: “Elon is building next Super App—stay on Twitter! He knows exactly what he's doing.” We know that the popular sentiment has varied, and been widely negative.
We know that some people have left the app. We know that people have been frustrated with what's going on at Twitter. We know that people think that he hasn't solved problems around bots and spam and doxxing and the lack of positive momentum since he took over is causing distrust and other negative sentiments.
So conversely, people hop on over to Instagram’s Threads. And when you look at the words that are coming up on the feed (on the “for you page” style page) that you land on, people are talking about how energetic it is, they're talking about how fun it is, how exciting it is, how entertaining it is; how they can't wait to see more from it; and on how they're hopeful that it stays this way.
The name thread itself is a “gloves off” kind of moment, given that the term was previously reserved for “Twitter threads” and Zuckerburg has said he plans to do what Twitter couldn’t.
Plus, it’s free.
These are major differentiators—even if it’s lacking features at launch (more on this in the UX section).
Clubhouse
Threads has a lot of the same positive early momentum as early clubhouse; and there are also a lot of those same early clubhouse users who are popping in and saying things to that effect. And they're wondering if they're going to have the same positive outcomes that we saw with early clubhouse, which is where people were able to have access to influencers to create conversations, to see and be seen in a way that you can only really kind of break through in on a new social media platform.
Similarly to Clubhouse, Threads launched invitation only to influencers and artists, so they could control the initial content and create FOMO. Moreover, this style of launch, means all of the initial users care about social media—or are at least curious enough to race to sign up early—so the platform is curating a self-selected group of tech enthusiasts and experts.
But threads has something Clubhouse didn’t—which can save it from Clubhouse’s fate. I can’t understate how powerful it is that threads is already connected to Instagram, and Meta’s preexisting money, systems, and expertise.
So first of all, starting with the login process: It's frictionless. You can just import everything straight over from your Instagram profile. So it's one click to set up on this new platform. It's not like you have all these decision points to consider whether to actually join. It's not like you have to pick your photo, and you have to pick your and you have to pick your bio, and you have to pick your username, and you have to pick your link; you can just import everything. Including, for all the—truly valid—data concerns, you might think: Meta already has my info, what’s one more platform in it’s ecosystem.
Next, Threads is making me take a second look at all of Instagram’s functionality. Maybe now I’ll spring for a blue check mark so I can be in the verified column on threads. Maybe I want a broadcast channel to tell my community about a new thread. Maybe I no longer feel the pressure for the aesthetic reel or brand photo to go with my reel, I’ll just post it straight to threads. Maybe I’ll use stories more now that I can send my threads there.
TikTok
Like audio, text-based social media gives the user the advantage that they don’t have to be “camera-ready”. There’s no “pretty privilege.” Share your thoughts with your hair and makeup done—or not. With your laundry put away—or not. It doesn’t even enter the conversation. Unlike TikTok where you have to have a visually appealing hook, on Threads you just have to say something interesting.
(And of course, unlike platforms with sound, you don’t have to be somewhere quiet or with good audio quality for your content to be well-received.)
Recent Apps: Clapper & Lemon8
When you logged into Clapper in 2023, even the believers would say: Bear with the terrible FYP, it’ll get better. If a first impression is everything, if attention spans are shorter than ever, why would you want a terrible algorithm to be your hallmark? There was also an “honor the OGs” culture that is, whereas on Threads, there’s no need to kiss anyone’s ring.
The same goes for who you're going to be following and who's going to be following you. It's all very automated. You have this dopamine hit of almost instant community carried over from Instagram that if you're joining and people who you know are joining, there's an automated feature for you to just follow everyone who you're already following. Contrast that with the rollout of TikTok parent’s app Lemon8, where following and engagement was extremely slow to build for non-influencers.
UX
Now, here's the thing, the app has launched relatively lean. So in the app itself, you can start a thread. It's like a tweet. You can essentially retweet or repost, and you can like. So there's some additional functionality obviously, that people are already talking about. People are saying:
Can we natively have GIF reactions?
Where are the DMs?
Where are the hashtags?
Can we search for certain topics?
Can we bookmark things?
Certainly there are features that users will want to see be rolled out; but right now, as I said, the app has positive sentiment, positive momentum, influencers present on the app, people they're exploring and engaging. I think it's off to a really strong start.
Conclusion
These are my observations, 24 hours in, based on previous experience. I would love to know your thoughts and predictions.
