Meta, the owner of Facebook, has introduced a new app called Threads, which is aimed at competing with Twitter.
The app was made available for pre-order on mobile app stores for both the iPhone and Android operating systems on Monday.
The app is listed as “Threads, an Instagram app” and is expected to be released in the near future. On Apple’s app store, it is described as “Instagram’s text-based conversation app,” indicating its focus on facilitating text-based conversations and interactions.
“Threads is where communities come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to what’ll be trending tomorrow,” says the app’s description on the store.
The launch of Threads comes during a period of uncertainty at Twitter following Elon Musk’s takeover in October.
Since then, Musk has implemented significant changes, including restructuring the company, laying off thousands of employees, and introducing a subscription paywall for certain features.
In mid-March, Meta (the parent company of Facebook and Instagram) announced its plans to develop a new social network.
The description of this upcoming social network suggests that it could potentially compete with Twitter, indicating a growing rivalry between the two platforms.
Threads will enable users to “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,” according to its app store description.
“We’re thinking about a decentralized, independent social network for sharing written messages in real-time,” the group said in a statement.
Last week, Twitter faced backlash when Elon Musk announced that the platform would impose a limit on the number of tweets users could read per day. The majority of users, who do not pay for subscriptions, would be limited to 1,000 tweets per day.
The decision was motivated by the goal of restricting third-party access to Twitter’s data, specifically targeting companies that utilize the data for artificial intelligence models.
The intention behind this limitation was to control and regulate the usage of the social network’s data.
