Twitter killer: Meta to launch new Threads app on July 6
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The rivalry between Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk has reached a new phase, as social media giant Meta prepares to challenge Twitter by launching a competing app called Threads. Unlike its photo-sharing platform Instagram, Threads is a "text-based conversation app" and is expected to be available on Apple's App Store from Thursday, Reuters reported.
Musk and Zuckerberg have been in the news for the past few days for their "billionaire bout" but even before the mixed-martial arts fight takes place, the stage has been set for the clash of apps from the two companies.
Since his acquisition of Twitter, Musk has been looking to take on Meta's WhatsApp by offering voice and video calls inside the text-based platform.
Musk's ambitious plan for an all-encompassing app aims to compete with Meta's Instagram and WhatsApp in capturing user attention. However, Zuckerberg's company is now tightening the screws on Twitter by introducing its new offering.
What will Threads offer?
As of now, Meta has not made any official announcements regarding Threads. Therefore, any discussions about its capabilities are primarily derived from the descriptions available on app stores and displayed prior to its launch.
Unlike the data-hungry Instagram, Threads could be expected to be lighter on your devices since it will largely use text. From a visual standpoint, differentiating between the app and Twitter would pose a challenge. This similarity extends to any other contenders that have emerged as Twitter rivals in recent times, including Jack Dorsey's BlueSky initiative.
Threads accounts will be connected to Instagram, enabling users to log in using the same usernames and follow the same accounts as they do on the photo-sharing platform, even within the text-based platform.
Although Thursday, July 6, is the likely launch date for the app, it is unclear if users will be able to post right away. With only two days remaining, Meta might opt for a gradual rollout of the service instead.
Could Twitter's decline translate into a gain for Threads?
The timing of the release, although coincidental, could hit Twitter hard. Former CEO Elon Musk recently announced temporary limits on the number of tweets users could see per day, leading to a rush of traffic toward BlueSky.
To address extreme levels of data scraping & system manipulation, we’ve applied the following temporary limits:
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 1, 2023
- Verified accounts are limited to reading 6000 posts/day
- Unverified accounts to 600 posts/day
- New unverified accounts to 300/day
Under Musk, Twitter has begun charging users for access to its application programming interface (API), and is now moving TweetDeck, an app used by news organizations and businesses to monitor Twitter feeds, behind a paywall too. It is believed that Musk is looking to increase the number of subscribers for its Twitter Blue services, which has shrunken in recent months, The Guardian reported.
Considering that Threads can commence its journey with a user base consisting of millions of Instagram users, it possesses the potential to surpass other Twitter rivals in terms of popularity.
Now, Meta has the capacity to directly compete with Twitter, making it a more captivating rivalry to observe than Musk and Zuckerberg's confrontation in a cage.
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