We all know that in the tech world, this week was entirely captured by the new social media platform by Meta. This platform is a direct competition to Twitter, and it’s called “Threads”. We were getting reports of a Twitter competitive app that is going to launch soon by Meta.
Threads launched without much promotion but got instant hype among the social media users and became the fastest platform to get 1 million sign-ups, with the record timing of just 1 hour. For the record ChatGPT took 5 days to achieve the milestone whereas Instagram took 2.5 months, and the world changer Facebook took 10 months. Today we are going to discuss this possibly “Next Gen Social Media Platform” and will share my experience as a techie and a global citizen.
What is Threads?
To sum up in brief what Threads is, it is basically a text based interactive platform where users can express their views and can have discussions with other users. This was the exact use case of Twitter, but the recent changes are slightly controversial. The recent policies of Elon Musk made Twitter a completely open space for everyone, whereas Meta’s policy is prioritizing healthier platform.
One big example of this difference is Andrew Tate. The controversial and influential speaker is banned from Facebook and Instagram, whereas he is present on Twitter and free to express anything (but within few guidelines). So, Threads is a healthier and more user-friendly version of Twitter (as marketed).
How is the User Interface?
As I mentioned earlier, it is very much like Twitter. And it’s not just for the purpose, but the interface as well. It has a very similar feed section, which serves you posts by the accounts you are following, and random posts based on your interests. It has very similar heart shaped like and comment design, and retweet is ‘repost’ here. It has more character limit than Twitter with 500 letters and has a bit organized interface.
For signing up, an Instagram account is required. This connects both the platforms by linking Instagram ID in Threads bio, and vice versa. One thing to note here is, to delete your Threads ID and its data saved on server, you have to delete your Instagram account also. Though a senior official has confirmed that they are looking into this and will come up with a solution soon. But right now, it is what it is.
Two things which I missed here are Hashtags and Trending page. These two features are stopping many users from deleting Twitter and shifting to Threads permanently. From one perspective, this is in favor of company’s policy of not spreading hate speech using hashtags to be on trending page. But we miss that feature to get updated with the latest news. Overall, it looks like Twitter with a pinch of Instagram.
It’s Algorithm:
Any internet platform is defined by how good its algorithm is? Because almost all these platforms are running on recommendations to users, by targeting the content of user’s interest. If a platform is not pushing content which a particular user wants, it won’t become a part of user’s social media life.
Here, Threads has a great advantage compared to Twitter. As they already have more data than Twitter because of Facebook and Instagram. But right now, we are seeing some random things on Threads because it’s a very new platform. On one side Facebook and Instagram are photo/video oriented platforms, Threads is based on text and conversation.
Right now, the algorithm of Threads is better than Twitter for me, because it’s less toxic and positive. But for many people Twitter has a better algorithm. I guess we must wait for a few months for how the situation will be after a certain period.
It’s Impact on Internet:
We know that social media is the most influential space right now. It can influence people to think in a certain way, it is the biggest platform for marketing, and it even has a crucial rule in general elections around the globe. It’s part of our lifestyle now and basically a world in which everyone lives in. And we all know Mark Zuckerberg made it possible with the rise of Facebook. But Facebook and Instagram are identified for photo/video content and Twitter is the biggest platform for social and political conversations.
And having a monopoly of such platform can be dangerous in many ways. In that way Threads will break this monopoly of Twitter. But in future if Threads overshadow Twitter, then it will be even more dangerous as Mark will have total control over social media by having three biggest platforms under him. So, a balance between Threads and Twitter is very necessary.
Will Thread Stay or Fade Away?
It’s not the first time Mark has launched a platform like this. In 2020 he launched a voice conversation based conversational platform ‘Clubhouse’. Though it failed miserably because people were more comfortable in typing rather than voice format. But Threads has way more potential because it gives a perfect alternative to Twitter. Many people argue that it can be an alternative, but it can’t compete with Twitter as it is original in its category.
But if we go by history, Instagram instantly became a preferable choice over Facebook. So, there are chances that if not overtake, Threads can be equal competition to Twitter. Is it another Clubhouse or the next big thing on internet? Only time will tell.
What are your thoughts on Threads and the impact it will create on internet? Let us know in the comment section below. And stay tuned with us for more such articles and latest tech news.
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