Everything You Need to Know About Meta’s Threads

Threads, Meta’s fledgling competitor to Twitter, is already soaring right alongside the bird app.

The app passed 30 million downloads in its first day, and that’s partly thanks to its easy integration with Instagram, making sign-up a breeze. It's quickly become the largest of the many Twitter alternatives that have cropped up all over the internet lately, including Mastodon and Bluesky. It makes sense why these platforms exist. Ever since Elon Musk bought Twitter last year and instituted policies like view limits and questionable hate speech guidelines, competitors have been trying to give fleeing Twitter users a place to roost.

So is Threads a suitable replacement, possibly even better in its own right? Here’s what you need to know when migrating from Twitter to Threads—and if you should believe the hype.

Sign-up is easy

Perhaps the biggest thorn in the side of rivals like Mastodon and Bluesky: It's difficult to register for them. Mastodon makes users choose between servers rather than put them all into one big pool, while BlueSky is technically still in beta and restricting sign-ups using a waiting list. Threads, by contrast, can already get you posting in less than a minute.

That’s thanks to its integration with Instagram, as every Threads account is linked to an Instagram account. This does mean you need an Instagram account to start posting on Threads, but the plus side is that those who already have Instagram can import all their pertinent info, including their bio and profile picture, and start using the app as if they’ve already been doing so for years. 

There's a real pain point in the sign-up process, though: connecting your Instagram account to your Threads account means that deleting one will delete the other. If you think you might want to opt out of Threads in the future, don’t link it to a precious Instagram account. This could prove an issue for those who might get targeted for harassment on Threads in the future.

For now, Instagram head Adam Mosseri has pointed out that you can deactivate your Threads account—hiding your profile and its content—without deleting your Instagram account. He also said that the company is “looking into a way to delete your Threads account separately.”

It’s a lot easier to transfer audiences to Threads

Anyone who’s run a popular social media account can tell you how difficult it is to transfer audiences between platforms. If you post on your Twitter that you’re moving to Cohost, which is a smaller site that makes users wait about a day before they’re allowed to post, you’re not going to get all of your Twitter audience to follow you. People might not be on the new platform, or they might miss your farewell Twitter post, or they just might not want to deal with the hassle of setup. Threads, however, gives you a boost by making it effortless for your Instagram followers to join you on the new platform. 

The process on Threads isn’t foolproof, nor is it entirely automatic. You’re still not going to get a 100% clickthrough rate. But it does make audience retention a lot easier. When one of your Instagram followers sets up a new Threads account, they’re prompted to follow you on Threads as well. And if one of your followers happens to beat you to setting up a Threads account, they can ask the app to follow you automatically when you do join the network.

This makes it easier to maintain a large audience during a move or at least to keep in touch with friends and family. You’ll still want to link to your Threads account on other networks, but you can rest easy knowing the app will help by advertising you to your audience in the background.

There’s no chronological timeline…

In a move that has some Twitter users calling Threads “dead on arrival,” the app currently does not have a chronological timeline that simply shows the most recent posts from the accounts you follow. While Twitter has its own algorithmic timeline that it’s been pushing increasingly often since 2016, the chronological timeline (its original feature) is still easy to swap to on both the website and mobile app.

Threads' lack of a chronological timeline means your early feed is going to be filled with posts from unfamiliar names. This can lead to some serendipitous discoveries, and TikTok's algorithmic feed is what has led to plenty of thriving niche communities like BookTok and BirdTok (which offer videos about exactly what you think they do). First-day Threads users, however, were met with generic memes, brand-friendly posts, and a lot of excitement for the app itself. On that last note, it’s worth pointing out that these feeds were also populated with posts from the 3,000 influencers, developers, and brands that got early access to Threads directly from Meta.

It’s unclear how balanced the algorithmic timeline will be over time. The Messenger’s reporters have seen increasing personalization as they’ve followed more accounts, but it’s unclear if the algorithmic timeline is currently trying to point you toward “your people” like TikTok or just highlight posts that Meta wants you to see. Either way, it's curious to see Meta launch a new algorithm-driven social network ahead of another presidential election: Facebook said in 2017 that it would take efforts to crack down on misinformation and bots on its platform, and has since regularly posted on its efforts to do so. Algorithmic timelines can be more vulnerable to bots, as they expose readers to accounts they don't already know.

…But a chronological timeline might be coming soon

In a response to a Threads post from star tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee on Thursday, Mosseri said “a home feed just for people you follow” is “on the list.”

That’s all he’s said so far, but such a feature would drastically increase the app’s usability and appeal. At the same time, even a timeline just for people you follow could be algorithm-driven, hiding accounts you interact with less and highlighting those you interact with more. This would still differ from the type of timeline that made Twitter famous, leaving the audience clamoring for a replacement to it feeling unfulfilled.

Some of Twitter’s most famous features are missing

Most of Twitter’s key features, including retweets and likes, are present on Threads. However, more supplementary ones like lists and bookmarks aren't. Other obvious omissions: a trending feed, as well as the ability to search hashtags. Without those tags, searching for a topic results only in accounts about that topic. For instance, “Star Wars” will lead you to the official Star Wars account but won’t return any posts talking about the latest Mandalorian episode.

Mosseri commented on his own Threads account that the ability to search by hashtags and posts is “on the list.” Also on the list, supposedly, is the ability to easily swap between multiple Threads accounts.

There’s hardly any web interface

To sign up for Threads, you have to use the mobile app. To properly use Threads, you’re going to want to use the mobile app. Unlike on Twitter, all web users can do at the moment is browse publicly available Threads accounts by typing “threads.net/” into their browser’s address bar and following it with the name of the account they want to read. This is helpful for linking others to specific Threads posts and for checking the site when not logged in, but it won’t let you post, scroll your feed, or access most of Threads’ other features.

According to Mosseri, “the priority is the mobile apps, but we are working on www.”

You can’t use Threads in the EU

As popular as Threads’ first few days has been, the site has yet to fully launch. While it’s available on both iOS and Android in 100 countries, it’s not yet available in Europe. Why? Meta is blaming the European Union's Digital Markets Act, which targets major tech providers, or gatekeepers, with rules on how much they can promote their own services on their sites. The rules came into effect in May, with more guidelines on how companies can comply with it set to come in September.

Meta is concerned on how the law will impact combining data between platforms. Given that Threads currently relies entirely on Instagram for sign-up, Meta is taking a wait-and-see approach rather than risk fines. The company told The Messenger that there's no specific launch date for Threads in the EU.

Musk might sue Threads

Less than 24 hours after Threads launched, Twitter parent company X Corp threatened to sue Meta over Threads. In a letter addressed to Meta CEO Mark Zuckeberg, Twitter claims that Threads represents "systematic, willfull, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter's trade secrets and intellectual property."

Specifically, it accuses Meta of hiring "dozens" of Twitter employees to gain access to confidential information and accuses Threads of being a "copycat" app. It demands Meta cease using Twitter's supposed trade secrets and confidential information and warns Meta against scraping Twitter for information.

This likely won't have any bearing on end users, but could affect community goodwill. If Meta is proven to have cribbed from Twitter, it could hurt Threads' credibility. At the same time, if the suit ends up impacting Threads service, that could wind up another controversy at Musk's feet.

Is Threads worth the hype?

Much of the appeal of places like Threads grows over time. Homegrown Twitter celebrities like dril weren’t all there on day one, but users are a big part of a site’s voice and relevance. It will be easier to get a feel for Threads’ culture a few months from now. But what is apparent now are the tools Threads has to work with, and whether it has set itself up for success.

On the plus side, Threads has an easy sign-up, already has millions of installs, and its UI is familiar and polished. The site is also already avoiding some of Twitter's more recent controversies, like putting basic features such as editing posts behind a paywall. And there's no view limits, at least according to a post from a Threads engineer.

But even with all that, it's simply underbaked in its current form, with many key features still "on the way."

This presents a major risk to Threads' future. The lack of a chronological timeline or a web app may leave that early install base with a poor first impression, as evidenced by Twitter users calling Threads "dead on arrival" as a potential replacement for the bird app.

The app's early success is promising, but doesn't automatically translate to active daily users. Threads has laid a strong foundation, but needs to move fast to make its app feel less like a beta if it wants to maintain that audience into the next few months.