Threads Review - New Social Network and Twitter Replacement

I love Twitter, and you? Probably not. Even with a high probability, definitely not. The platform's audience in Russia was something like 2 million people per month. After the blocking, Mediascope reported a 2-fold drop in activity, but there are always questions about their data.

But in the world the platform is cool, important and popular. The most up-to-date news, the coolest humor, politicians, celebrities, all the action is here. But it didn't fly here. And it won't fly anymore. But. There's a big event happening here. Today, July 6, a Twitter competitor to the banned and blocked Instagram is being launched. Ladies and gentlemen –  Threads.

What are Threads?

It is a microblogging platform based on Insta.

What does "on the base" mean? It's simple. So far, registration is only available through an Instagram account. And this is a huge plus and strength:

1. All your social capital stays with you. Are you a million-follower blogger? Great. Create an account on Threads, and “your people” stay with you. They will then subscribe to your profile themselves, you can adjust the description/avatar, no one will take your @username, and you will even retain verification.
   
   Bottom line: the lowest possible barrier to entry.
2. Threads is already tightly integrated into Instagram. You can repost posts to Stories and the main feed. And it looks beautiful/stylish. There is a link to your Threads profile in your Instagram account.
   
   This means a new audience will come here. Instagram, for a second, has 2 billion monthly audience. There is a lot of it. And all the power of Facebook comes to the rescue here.
3. The micro-text format itself is cool and simple. Easy to write, easy to enter. Text Stories easily flow into Threads.

All this gives more than 25 million registrations in less than a day (about 15 hours). By the way. So far, there is a joke that the application is not available in app stores in all countries. I installed it through Belarus, there were no problems. From Poland they report that the application is not available. And in the EU there are problems with this.

Plus, Threads isn't always found by search. So here are direct links for installation on iOS and Android. Funny Easter egg, the link to the Android app still contains the name barcelona, which is a test name for the app. And the Threads name itself is not new. A couple of years ago, there was a separate app for Direct and communication with close friends (and statuses) on Insta, and then it was closed.

The social network itself consists of several screens. The main one is the feed. It is not chronological. Full algorithm. In which you cannot yet set up "read only those you are subscribed to". But in the settings you can set the priority of your subscriptions at the beginning of the feed.

Do you know where it's hidden? If I don't tell you, you'll hardly figure it out: Settings - Notifications - Threads and replies - Scroll to the very bottom - "First threads" - "From people you're subscribed to". Simple? Yeah.

The feed throws up content from all over the world. Lots of English, lots from friends and acquaintances. It's interesting to scroll through.

What can I post on Threads?

Branches. I'm not kidding. That's what it's called here. It's still very unusual. The post contains up to 500 characters. External links are supported. Photos and videos (up to 5 minutes) are attached. You can tag other accounts. You can repost (rethread?), you can repost with a quote. Like and reply to other people's posts. There is no advertising yet. None.

Hashtags are not supported yet. Editing posts does not work. No saving or bookmarking yet. No views/reach statistics. No statistics at all.

What's the joke anyway?

Launching a platform without additional features is somehow strange. That's why they added Decentralization. It doesn't work yet, but they promise to launch the "end-to-end account" feature, which will be available on web3.0-analogues of Twitter, like Mastodon. I'm sure that Threads will simply swallow up all competitors. And it may swallow up Twitter itself.

Why? Because 10 million installations in 7 hours after the platform was launched. Because there was wild activity right away. I listed the main reasons above.

Besides. The platform may not have been launched for no reason. Twitter plays an important role in American politics. It influences it. And now the social network is run by Musk, who pretends to be an uncontrollable person. And, perhaps, during the 2024 elections, he can throw out some jokes.

For example, he actively leaked Twitter Files about the communications between government agencies and the former management of Twitter (and there was quite a lot of it).

What should brands do?

Threads was immediately blocked. Although RKN has no data on the blocking, it apparently works on servers and in close connection with Instagram, so the platform is blocked without the blocking itself.

Twitter is an incredibly cool and viral platform. Brands behave boldly there. They joke, flash mob, attract attention. But in Russia there is almost none of this, except for conditional Aviasales. Because there is little audience.

Threads is growing its audience very quickly. Do you have an Instagram account? Get Threads! Don't have an Instagram account? What's wrong with you?