Dubbed as a ‘Twitter-killer’ app, Meta’s Threads was officially unveiled on Wednesday as a direct challenge to Elon Musk’s struggling platform. Users can share text-based posts up to 500-characters long and include pictures, links and 5 minute-long videos, too. Designed by the Instagram team, users who have an account on the photo-video sharing app can directly log into Threads.
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The app garnered more than 5 million sign-ups in its first four hours, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg said on his Threads account.
What does the Threads logo signify?
At first glance, the Threads app icon looks like an '@' symbol and appears somewhat based on the Instagram logo itself. Although there has been no official statement from Zuckerberg or Meta regarding the logo, the design has evoked mixed reactions from netizens. While some found it to resemble an ear, others were reminded of Tamil, Malayalam alphabets as well as the letter ‘G’.
However, the refresh animation of the logo earned praise from some users.
{{/usCountry}}However, the refresh animation of the logo earned praise from some users.
{{/usCountry}}With Threads, Meta aims to welcome users who are leaving Twitter - accelerated by Musk’s chaotic acquisition of the platform and the subsequent policy changes. Recently, Musk said that users will only be able to see a certain number of Tweets per day in an attempt to deal with “data scraping” and “system manipulation”.
Read: Amid Threads launch, Mark Zuckerberg tweets for first time in 11 years, jabs Elon Musk
Available to download for free on the Apple App Store and Google Play store in over 100 countries now, the latest social media platform has visual aesthetics similar to Twitter. Meta said in a blog post that individual feeds will include “threads” that were posted by other users that they follow, in addition to recommended content shared from creators who users may not know.
Instagram users will also be able to share their Threads posts via the app’s story feature in addition to “any other platform you choose,” according to the blog post.