Zuckerberg has released Threads on 6th July, 2023 as a competitor to Twitter. Soon it will be widely available. At present, the app is not available in European markets. It is available in India.

Twitter shows collective community mood through trending topics Threads lacks this. It has yet not enabled hashtags, a key tool for organising and discovering basic information and social movements. Spaces is the audio chatting tool of Twitter. Threads may lack this. Perhaps, soon these features too will arrive on Threads.

Threads, within two hours of appearing, garnered two million people. And within seven hours of launch, it collected 10 million sign ups. However, it is to be seen what its staying power is. Twitter has 238 million people daily active users.

Threads may not have a messaging system. Instead, it may encourage private chats with Meta’s other apps. People need not have an extra-box to check.

Currently there is no control of what people see in the feed of Threads. Twitter has the option of restricting posts to people you follow. Threads may carry excessive ads, and be a bait for influences and engagement. However, Meta too is changing. It has promised to make Threads compatible with ‘fediverse’, an open protocol and access it all on other app.

Twitter faces competition from a formidable rival within seven months of Elon Musk taking control of it.

Threads has been built upon Instagram platform with its massive user base. If the users adopt Threads, advertisers will follow. Currently, there are no ads, and the company will think about monetisation after it achieves 1 billion users.

Threads is a stand-alone app. However, users can log in using their Instagram credentials. It is available in 100 countries. The posts can be up to 500 characters long, and can include links, photos and videos up to five minutes.

Public figures and governments may take a while to warm up to Threads since Twitter is an established town square. To begin with Threads may not have social and political impact. Twitter has earned a place as an opinion shaping platform that sets the narrative. It may retain this position in the foreseeable future.