Apart from two egomaniac billionaires threatening each other over a fight Iron Man style, it is essentially Instagram, or Meta’s, new version of Twitter.

As Elon Musk lets his own personal values get involved in the running of what used to be a wonderful app, ultimately burning it to the ground in a very public and painful way – Mark Zuckerberg has stepped in to scoop up its audience and take the glory.

Although you can hear cheers from past-Twitter users everywhere, we haven’t forgotten everything else you’ve done Mr Zuckerberg, even if you do hide it behind the personable profile of Adam Mosseri.

Shall we get into it?

Who created Instagram Threads?

The one and only Meta, as described by Mr Zuckerberg himself:

Meta builds technologies that help people connect, find communities, and grow businesses. When Facebook launched in 2004, it changed the way people connect. Apps like Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp further empowered billions around the world. Now, Meta is moving beyond 2D screens toward immersive experiences like augmented and virtual reality to help build the next evolution in social technology.

So, of course they launch… a text based app.

Meta is known for either A. buying up and coming apps, or B. copying up and coming apps that refuse to be bought. In this case, they know Twitter is dying out, so they just created their own version – with absolutely no shame whatsoever.

Who created Twitter?

Very long story short.. in 2006  Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams created Twitter.

It soared in popularity for numerous reasons, including but not limited to: NASA Astronaut Timothy Creamer sending the first tweet live from outer orbit, it was an essential social media tool used during the Arab Spring, the wave of antigovernmental protests throughout Egypt, Libya and Tunisia and Barack Obama used the “platform to first declare victory publicly in the 2012 U.S. presidential election”.

In 2022, Elon Musk bought Twitter, even though he tried to back out of it, which didn’t help with the rumours swirling that it was a drunken deal – the beginning, and continuation, of his reign was not a good one, even if he did walk into the Twitter office…with a sink.

It would take a while to go through everything he has done to Twitter, so just know that he fired a lot of people, has done multiple U-turns on promises, has changed rules and regulations to fit himself and lost a lot of big advertisers in the process.

What is Instagram Threads?

According to the IOS app store:

Threads is where communities come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to what’ll be trending tomorrow. Whatever it is you’re interested in, you can follow and connect directly with your favorite creators and others who love the same things — or build a loyal following of your own to share your ideas, opinions and creativity with the world.

But ultimately, it looks and feels like… Twitter.

Your feed will feature Tweets.. sorry, I mean Threads from those you follow as well as recommended Tweets, sorry – Threads. You can quote Tweet…sorry, Thread…and reply to other Tweets…sorry, Threads.

Your Tweets, sorry Threads, can have 500 characters and you can also publish videos up to 5 minutes long. Adam Mosseri has stated that advertising is not yet available but could be a possibility in the future depending on how well the app performs.

While writing this, it currently has signed up over 7.5 million users in 5 hours.

Where can I find instagram Threads?

You can download Threads on IOS or Android, and it is available in over 100 countries.

When setting up you can simply import from your Instagram including bio information and followers, making the process very simple.

Why did they create Instagram Threads?

Well, according to Adam Mosseri:

The idea at a high level is we have this amazing creative community on Instagram. We have amazing creators on the platform. Obviously, Twitter pioneered the space, and there are a lot of good offerings out there for public conversations, but just given everything that was going on, we thought there was an opportunity to build something that was open and something that was good for the community that was already using Instagram.

The Verge

See what I mean about Zuckerberg using a personable front? This is techs version of good cop, bad cop and I’m kind of enjoying it.

One of them is out there like ‘Cage fighting yeah haha I’m better than you’ and the other is all ‘You know, we just love communities and want to see them grow, peace and love and all that jazz’ – not direct quotes, just my assumption.

Am I on Instagram Threads?

Of course I am, I’m a sucker for a new app. I lasted on Be Real for approximately one week though, so we’ll see how it goes.

See you there > https://www.threads.net/@talorgilchrist_