Facebook’s parent company Meta has introduced Threads, a new programme that will compete with Twitter. The major social media site used by Meta, Instagram, will be intimately connected with Threads.
Images of the Threads app’s dashboard show that it remarkably resembles Twitter’s user interface. Threads is referred to in Meta as a “text-based conversation app,” highlighting the emphasis on encouraging dialogues. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, ratchets up their ongoing competition with Twitter owner Elon Musk with this action.
In a recent development, Musk and Zuckerberg jokingly agreed to a battle on social media during a fun interaction. Musk responded to a tweet about Threads by saying, “Thank goodness they’re so sanely run,” which appeared to be a sly swipe at Zuckerberg. Such banter brings out the rivalry that exists between the two tech Titans.
In the meantime, Twitter has revealed that TweetDeck, its well-liked user dashboard, will change to a paid subscription model in 30 days. This choice is consistent with Musk’s plan to entice people to sign up for Twitter Blue, the premium service offered by the network. Similar to this, Musk recently restricted tweet visibility due to worries about “data scraping.”
Contrarily, it seems that Threads will be a cost-free service with no limitations on post exposure, as suggested by Meta’s App Store description. The app seeks to act as a focal point for community discussions on a range of subjects. The user interface of Threads is shown in the offered screenshots to be very similar to Twitter, which increases its attraction to potential users.
Additionally, Threads will gather information from users’ devices, such as browser history, purchase history, and location data. Despite the emergence of other Twitter-like apps in recent years, such as Mastodon and Donald Trump’s Truth Social, Threads is positioned to be the biggest threat to Twitter’s hegemony. With Meta’s substantial resources and Threads’ incorporation into Instagram’s network, which has hundreds of millions of users, the app has a head start over other aspiring competitors.
As seen by Meta’s Reels (a TikTok ripoff) and Stories (a Snapchat ripoff), Mark Zuckerberg has a history of stealing concepts from other businesses and successfully executing them. Zuckerberg hopes to win over disgruntled Twitter users with this launch by capitalising on Musk’s sporadic alienation of his own user base. The conditions are in place for Threads to establish itself as a viable rival to Twitter and pose a serious threat to its dominance in the social media space.