London –
Meta is set to unveil a new app that appears to mimic Twitter – a direct challenge to the social media platform owned by Elon Musk.
A listing for an app called Threads has appeared on Apple’s App Store, indicating it will debut as early as Thursday. It’s billed as a “text-based conversation app” that ties into Instagram, and the listing teases a Twitter-like microblogging experience.
It states, “Threads are where communities come together to discuss the topics you care about today and what will be trending tomorrow.”
Instagram users will be able to keep their usernames and follow the same accounts on the new app, according to a screenshot displayed on the App Store listing. Meta declined to comment on the app.
Musk responded “yes” to a tweet from Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, saying “all your threads belong to us,” along with a screenshot from the Privacy section of the App Store showing what personal information is being accessed by the new Meta app. Information may be collected.
Threads could be the latest headache for Musk, who acquired Twitter last year for $44 billion and is making changes that have upset advertisers and turned off users, including limits on the number of tweets people can see. New daily limits are also included.
Social media consultant Matt Navara said Meta has good timing because Twitter users are growing frustrated with Musk’s changes and are looking for a viable alternative.
Threads “offers an opportunity to move to a platform that can give them many of the things they want Twitter to be like it isn’t now,” he said.
Navara, a former director of social media at tech news site The Next Web and Digital, said allowing Instagram users to port their profiles to Threads could give the new app more appeal by providing a ready-made set of accounts with potential users. Is. Communications Adviser to the British Government.
Twitter has rolled out a series of unpopular changes in recent days, including requiring users to verify themselves in order to access TweetDeck, the online dashboard. The policy announced on Monday goes into effect in 30 days and appears to be aimed at raising additional revenue as users will have to pay to verify their accounts under Musk’s changes.
TweetDeck is popular among companies and news organizations for allowing users to manage multiple Twitter accounts.
It comes after an outcry over Musk’s announcement this weekend that Twitter is limiting the number of tweets users can see each day – a restriction that the billionaire Tesla CEO said was an effort to prevent unauthorized scraping of potentially valuable data. as described.
Still, some users may be put off by Meta’s data privacy track record, Navarra said. And future Twitter challengers like Mastodon are finding it a challenge to sign up users.
Navara said, “It is difficult to tell whether the resentment and discontent is strong enough to lead to a large-scale exodus or whether it will be somewhat of a slow erosion.”
Musk’s rivalry with the meta platform may have spilled over into real life, too. In an online conversation between Musk and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the two tech billionaires agreed to a one-on-one cage match, though it’s unclear whether they’ll actually get in the ring.