While Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg’s possible cage fight is still in talks, round 1 of the battle has already begun virtually. Instagram head Adam Mosseri recently introduced a Twitter rival app called Threads. It is now available for all iOS and Android users globally.
Since Twitter pioneered this space, Zuckerberg mostly derived inspiration from Twitter in his app while making a few tweaks here and there. However, Threads needs polishing to convince users to switch from Twitter.
Twitter VS Threads: Top key differences
One of the biggest flexes that Threads has is the easy sign-in process. Unlike Twitter, Threads lets you sign in with your Instagram account. You will be able to follow the same people from Instagram and more and you do not have to manually add details like username, bio or display picture. This is one of the major steps that saves a lot of time and trouble.
Another thing that Threads offers better than Twitter is the character limit. Threads has a 500-character limit on posts while Twitter offers 280-character limit. Twitter has a limit of four items including website links, videos and images per tweet. On the contrary, Threads allows you to share 10 items in a single post.
Another major highlight is that Threads does not have ads at all. However, they will be introduced in future. Instagram CEO says that will happen when Threads will have 1 billion users. Threads allows users to restrict other accounts on the platform. When you restrict an account, you will not receive any notifications from that particular account and that account holder will not be able to reply, comment, repost or quote your post. This is not exactly like blocking anyone or unfollowing, it is somewhere between that. Twitter, on the other hand, allows users to mute an account or block them altogether.
In terms of pricing, Threads is absolutely free of cost, just like Instagram, while Twitter charges up to Rs 799 per month for its Twitter Blue service to give access to premium features.
While Threads has a lot of things going for it, it is still new. Hence, it is a bit rough on the edges. Surprisingly, you cannot send direct messages to other users on Threads. To do that, you will have to go back to Instagram.
Another thing is that Threads doesn’t have hashtags. Twitter has a thriving trending section where users can sift through various trending topics across genres and regions easily but there isn’t a specific trending section on Threads, you can only see a more random selection of Threads from across users.
Lastly, there’s no edit option on Threads, something Twitter users dreaded for years to get and finally got as part of the premium subscription.
Threads witnessed a great response from users all around the world and attracted 5 million users in just 4 hours of being launched. Threads’ biggest user base is India which accounts for 33 per cent of the global downloads of the app.
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