Instagram has had a history of copying the most popular features of its rival social media platforms and making a fortune out of it. What started as a simple photo-sharing platform gradually evolved into a goliath of a social media app, borrowing Stories from Snapchat and Reels from TikTok. The only thing left was to do something about Twitter’s micro-blogging concept and boy, we didn’t have to wait long to see that happen. Instagram Threads app is exactly the type of competitor that Elon Musk’s Twitter doesn’t need right now.
In the early hours of July 6, Meta’s Adam Mosseri and Mark Zuckerberg proudly revealed Threads to the public. Accessible to everyone in over 100 countries (except the European Union), Instagram Threads relies on all the data users have given to Instagram and provides a platform to blog about things, just like Twitter.
The arrival of a new social media platform also raises valid concerns about yet another app using your data. However, with Twitter’s recent controversies, it seems like Instagram Threads might be the need of the hour. So, in case you are trying to make up your mind on which side you want to join in the Instagram Threads app vs Twitter debate, here’s everything you need to know about the two social media apps.
Instagram Threads app: A quick overview of the ‘Twitter killer’
Instagram Threads is essentially Meta’s idea of how Twitter should be. Conceptualised as a micro-blogging app, Threads offers users another platform for public conversations. Mark Zuckerberg and Adam Mosseri want to capitalise on the ‘volatility’ of Twitter and its new owner, Elon Musk. Instagram Threads is simply expected to be a fuss-free Twitter rival that puts the focus, once again, on the conversations.
Onboarding a new platform is often difficult as one has to convince millions of users to download a new app, learn how to use it and become an active member of it. However, Instagram makes it easy by simply letting you borrow all the profile details from your Instagram account and apply them to your new Threads account. One of Instagram’s benefits, such as a verified blue badge, is carried over to Threads but is currently reserved for celebrities and prominent personalities. This probably explains why the Instagram Threads app managed to see 10 million activations within seven hours of its release.
There are some concerns too. The data privacy policies governing Instagram Threads are questionable, to say the least, which is also why Threads isn’t available in the European Union as of now.
Didn’t Instagram have a Threads app before?
Yes, there was a Threads app on Instagram a couple of years ago. It was a follow-up to the Direct app and focused on Instagram DMs and posting status updates for Close Friends. The Threads app was Meta’s way of taking on Snapchat by using its existing user base on Instagram. However, the app failed to gather any traction. Users complained about the complicated layout and several glitches. Even after Instagram gave it a UI overhaul and opened it to send DMs to everyone in your contact list, the app could barely hold its ground and was discontinued in late 2021.
How Twitter paved the way for Threads
One of the main reasons for Threads to exist is a slew of controversies surrounding Twitter ever since Elon Musk took over in 2022 for a sum of around USD 44 billion. Musk has been criticised for taking extreme business decisions that often affect Twitter users and the way they interact with content.
After Musk took over Twitter, he restructured the organisation and laid off a massive workforce, as a result of which thousands of Twitter employees became jobless overnight. Musk has laid off over 6,000 employees since he took over, which amounts to an estimated 80 per cent reduction in the social networking site’s workforce.
Post the restructuring, Musk wanted to make Twitter more profitable and gave users all the features they had been demanding for years, but at a price. Features such as the ability to edit tweets, write long posts, get a verified ‘blue’ badge and more have been offered for a monthly fee. Organisations and government agencies have been given different coloured badges for verifications. Twitter released a statement on the same, claiming that the ‘blue tick’, or Twitter Blue, will enable a user to have early access to selected features, including higher visibility, longer tweets and fewer advertisements. The decision made it possible for anyone on the platform to add the badge to their account at a premium, stripping legacy ‘blue tick’ accounts of their pride.
For those not willing to pay, Twitter eventually ended up limiting the user experience. Recent controversies include limited tweet viewing and a randomised ‘For You’ tab that shows more tweets from unknown accounts. The latter is a change to Twitter’s core design that Musk incorporated into the platform. Algorithmically suggested content from accounts you don’t follow popping up on your feed, similar to TikTok’s home page, did not sit well with a lot of users. The controversies keep piling up and as a result, several celebrities like Gigi Hadid, Jim Carrey, Toni Braxton and Whoopi Goldberg discarded their Twitter accounts.
The Musk vs Zuckerberg ‘cage fight’ fuels up the rivalry
Vegas Octagon
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 22, 2023
The Instagram Threads app vs Twitter comparison spices up when you consider the long ongoing war of words between their founders. Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have been taking digs at each other for years but it reached its peak when Musk challenged Zuckerberg to a cage fight after the latter spoke about how Twitter wasn’t run ‘sanely’. Zuckerberg in response to Musk’s cage fight challenge had one thing to say, “Send me the location.”
It is now being rumoured that the ongoing brawl between the two is one of the primary reasons for pushing Threads out so soon. Post its launch, Zuckerberg even posted on Threads that his team wanted to create a conversation platform with over one billion people, and while Twitter had the opportunity in the past, it blew it. Twitter’s new CEO Linda Yaccarino, in response, tweeted, “We’re often imitated – but the Twitter community can never be duplicated.”
On Twitter, everyone’s voice matters.
Whether you’re here to watch history unfold, discover REAL-TIME information all over the world, share your opinions, or learn about others — on Twitter YOU can be real.
YOU built the Twitter community. 🙏👏 And that’s irreplaceable. This…
— Linda Yaccarino (@lindayacc) July 6, 2023
But what about Elon Musk’s reaction to Threads? Just hours after Instagram Threads went live, Twitter’s celebrity lawyer Alex Spiro sent a letter to Meta, threatening to sue them for “systematic, willful and unlawful misappropriation” of Twitter’s trade secrets as well as IP. Spiro, in his letter, accused Meta of hiring previous Twitter engineers who “had and continue to have access to Twitter’s trade secrets and other highly confidential information” for building Threads.
Musk also took a jibe at Zuckerberg’s Threads, saying, “Competition is fine, cheating is not.”
Competition is fine, cheating is not
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 6, 2023
Meta spokesperson Andy Stone, in a Threads post, denied the accusations, saying that “No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee — that’s just not a thing.”
Could this battle eventually blow out of proportion in the coming weeks? Could Musk and Zuckerberg finally have their cage fight, although on the legal turf instead of the Roman Colosseum? We can only wait and watch.
Instagram Threads app vs Twitter: The key differences
Onboarding is easier in Threads
While Twitter allows you to create a new account from scratch the traditional way (filling out forms and choosing a profile picture), Instagram Threads does it differently. At the moment, you need to have an Instagram account to create a Threads account. The app simply copies all the profile details and preferences from your Instagram account and applies them to your Threads account. There’s an option to write your bio and set a different profile picture but everything else is lifted off from Instagram.
Verification badge: shared use vs single-use
If you already had the blue verification badge on Facebook or Instagram, it will be applicable to your Threads profile as well. In other words, a shared verification badge will work for all three platforms. As for Twitter, the verification badge can only be obtained by paying the monthly fee and, as of now, is not applicable to any other apps.
Instagram Threads is only available as an app (for now!)
You can access Twitter both on your web browser and as an app on your smartphone. Instagram Threads, on the other hand, is only available as an app on iOS and Android. However, Adam Mosseri has claimed that Instagram is working on a web version of Threads.
GIFs can’t be used in the Instagram Threads app
Twitter lets you use GIFs as a means of replying to images and videos. Instagram Threads only allows images and short videos right now. We tested this by trying to use GIFs on our Android smartphone but it wasn’t allowed.
Character limits
Twitter allows up to 240 characters for free users and up to 10,000 characters for Twitter Blue subscribers. Instagram Threads is currently allowing up to 500 characters for all users.
Part of interoperable networks
Instagram Threads is built on ActivityPub, an open social networking protocol that allows Threads to be interoperable with other apps that also support the same protocol. Hence, Threads will be interoperable with Mastodon and WorkdPress, allowing for new and easy connections. Twitter, on the other hand, doesn’t support this open standard.
Instagram Threads allows sharing via Twitter
Similar to Instagram, Threads allows posts to be shared via Twitter. The same cannot be said for Twitter.
This article first appeared on Augustman India
(Hero and Featured Image Credits: Courtesy Instagram)
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Conceptualised as a micro-blogging app, Instagram Threads offers a platform to users for public conversations.
Instagram Threads is available on both iOS and Android.
Instagram Threads does not have a desktop website, so it can only be accessed as an app on iOS and Android.
Instagram Threads is available for download on both the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.
