The newest addition to Meta's family of apps is Threads, which was launched on Thursday, a direct rival to 16-year-old Twitter. And though this has invited a legal threat from Elon Musk-led microblogging platform, Threads garnered over 10 million users in just 24 hours.
Threads by Meta is a lot like Twitter, but the internet is divided over Threads' potential to obliterate Twitter as there are key notable differences between the two platforms.
Here are five key differences between the platforms:
1. Availability
Twitter, when it started about 16 years ago was only a website and gained its popularity as the same. However, with fast adaption of smartphones, the app was introduced on Android and iOS eventually. However, Threads is currently app-only, which is available to download from iOS and Android app stores. This makes it exclusively a mobile experience. Given Instagram popularity as an app, it seems Meta is going by the same playbook and so Threads website may not be available soon.
2. Account sync
On Twitter, one can log in using options like email, phone number and even just a username. The blue bird is an independent one and isn't tied to any other app, it just borrows log information but Threads is synced with Instagram. For now, there's no other way to log in to Threads apart from your Instagram account and vice versa. Threads cannot even be deleted without deleting your Instagram account.
3. Price and verification
Twitter, under the Musk regime came up with a verification subscription programme that also added some more benefits like additional word count, no ads and the coveted blue tick. Meta soon followed suit with Instagram but only offers verification as a service. Threads verification is transferred from Instagram and so is only a blue tick whereas Twitter Blue is a blue tick and the added benefits. Both the platforms charge almost the amount i.e. about 799 per month.
4. Multimedia posts
Both the platforms allow a user to post website links, videos and images. A user can post GIFs on both the services as well, but one has to save the GIF to camera roll first to be able to post it on Threads. Along with that, one can post more images and videos at once on Threads whereas Twitter has a limit of four items per tweet. Threads allows you to share 10 items in a single post, which is similar to the carousel posts on Instagram.
5. Text Limit & Feed curation
Twitter, for the longest time was infamous for its 140-character limit which was revised to 280 and now with Twitter Blue that limitation is also out of the picture. However, Threads gives a hard stop at 500 characters. Apart from text limit, there is no way to text someone privately on Threads. It lacks in-app messaging that Twitter has. Threads also doesn't allow a user to search anything apart from usernames and accounts. Hashtags do not work in this part of the 'fediverse'. Threads' feed also shows posts from everyone, irrespective of a user following the account or not whereas Twitter has two feed options, one curated on the basis of user preferences and other on the basis of following.
Apart from this, Threads is also an ad-free experience, which is most likely to change in the near future.
Though, Twitter and Threads seem same on paper they are a different experience altogether for a user. However, it's also very evident that Threads is a work in progress.