The Twitter Takedown has been in progress for a while. Everyone is trying to find an alternative to Elon’s Twitter, and so far, no one has succeeded. But what about Threads for publishers?
Enter Meta.
If anyone can compete in the text-based social platform space, it will be Meta. There have been rumblings for a long time, and now it’s here.
How do you use it?
It’s so easy.
You sign up through your Instagram with the same username. You can import your bio from Instagram but also make it unique to Threads.
Posts can be up to 500 characters long and include links, photos, and videos up to 5 minutes in length.
Access to Threads is available for iOS and Android which can be downloaded from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Currently, there isn’t a desktop version or an API for developer partners yet.
From an API standpoint, Meta is working to make Threads compatible with interoperable networks. From Meta:
Soon, we plan to make Threads compatible with ActivityPub, the open social networking protocol established by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the body responsible for the open standards that power the modern web. This would make Threads interoperable with other apps that also support the ActivityPub protocol, such as Mastodon and WordPress – allowing new types of connections that are simply not possible on most social apps today. Other platforms including Tumblr have shared plans to support the ActivityPub protocol in the future.
What we like
Honestly, for an early app, there’s a lot to like. Here are some of the pros as we see them right now:
- It’s easy. When you sign up, there’s an option to follow all of your Instagram follows. They follow you right back. No “FOLLOW US HERE!” posts or meticulous rebuilding.
- The clean, simple, familiar interface is easy to interact with. Not a lot of flash or color. It’s a nice shift from the immersive and loud TikTok experience.
- Similar to Twitter, Threads are presented in the main feed (with a lot of recommended content to start with), and you can like, re-share, and reply to each update.
The challenges
- No web app. You must use it on your phone, much like old-school Instagram. This could make it tough for publishers to start (but an API is expected to be released soon, which means True Anthem will support it when an API is available).
- Competition. Will it be seamless enough to make a dent in Twitter’s market share? Linda Yaccarino seems to think that Twitter is unshakeable, but that remains to be seen.
- As with all early platforms, the process of scheduling and integrations into other internet spaces is just not there yet. Obviously, with Meta at the helm, they can make a dent in this quickly. But will they?
We’ll see what comes next, but with the millions of users onboarding in the first 24 hours, it looks like Threads for publishers could have some momentum.
We’d recommend experimenting with Threads and honing your strategy while we await updates from Meta on the Threads API.
Happy Threading!
