Meta seems poised to compete with Twitter with new Threads app

Meta Platforms plans to launch a Twitter-rival microblogging app called Threads, days after Twitter boss Elon Musk drew criticism by announcing a temporary limit on the number of posts users can read on the social media site.

Threads is expected to be released Thursday and will allow users to maintain followers of Instagram’s photo-sharing platform and keep the same username, a listing on Apple’s App Store revealed. According to reports, the entry also appears on the Google Play Store in some countries, but not all, for Android users.

The rollout poses a direct challenge to Twitter, which has faced numerous controversies since Musk purchased the company in 2022 for $44 billion.

Last week, the Tesla billionaire announced a series of new restrictions for the app, limiting the number of tweets users could view per day, sparking outrage from many on the platform.

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While alternative microblogging sites — such as Mastodon and Blue Sky — have reported a surge in user numbers since Musk’s acquisition, neither has been able to challenge Twitter.

But Instagram already has hundreds of millions of registered users and has a history of introducing new features based on the success of other social media companies.

In 2016, it added a feature called “Stories” to Instagram, or user posts that disappear after a certain amount of time, in response to Snapchat’s rising popularity.

More recently, the company’s short video feature “Reels” has attempted to challenge the rise of TikTok.

The launch of Threads poses a credible threat to Twitter under Musk, whose efforts to boost revenue and remake the platform into his own image have been met with serious criticism.

After taking over the company late last year, he laid off about 80 percent of the staff and reinstated some banned accounts.

Hundreds of advertisers, concerned about a perceived increase in malicious content on the platform, paused spending with Twitter, and internal documents Reuters reviewed showed that the platform’s most active users were pulling out.

Meta did not immediately respond to a request from Reuters for comment on a similar launch on the Google Play Store.