Instagram launches new Threads platform – and it has Twitter in its sights

Instagram has today launched its next text and conversation-focused platform called Threads – and it is already being seen as a direct threat to Twitter.

Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg announced the new Threads app which was created by Instagram and designed to allow its two billion plus users to connect with friends and creators.

Threads has been rolled out in more than 100 countries with the app available for both iOS and Android users.

The Threads interface looks a lot like Twitter and has many other similarities.

Users can log in to Threads using their Instagram account and choose to follow the same people if they are also on the new platform.

Posts can be up to 500 characters long and can include links, photos and videos up to five minutes in length.

Your feed on Threads will be a combination of people you follow and content recommended for you from creators you may have not found yet.

Users can control who can mention them and who can reply. It’s also possible to block, restrict or report a profile in the same way you would do on Instagram.

Now is it a threat to Twitter which was recently acquired by Elon Musk?

The answer is yes.

Instagram has more than 2.35 billion monthly active users while Twitter has 450 million.

Even if a third of Instagram users create an account on Threads it will eclipse Twitter.

This comes days after Musk imposed a limit to the number of tweets a user can view per day on Twitter.

Twitter also removed all the verification ticks and has given any user the option of buying a blue tick verification.

Meta also offers verification at a cost on Instagram.

If an Instagram user has a verification tick and creates a Threads account it will also carry over to new platform.

Twitter has long been seen as the news-focused, conversation platform where the biggest news stories are broken.

It’s where you find out things and where friends, celebrities, politicians and sport stars engage with their followers.

Threads is banking on the huge Instagram user base coming across to the new Twitter-like environment to engage their current followers and to potentially find a new audience.