Meta launched Threads, a text-based social networking form that has attracted millions of users in a matter of hours, as a direct competitor to Twitter.
The app is similar to Twitter in that it allows users to like, re-post, and reply to short text posts, but it does not include direct messaging.
According to a post on the Meta blog, posts may contain up to 500 characters as well as links, images, and videos that are up to five minutes long.
Although Threads is a stand-alone app, users can log in using their Instagram credentials and follow the same profiles, potentially making it simple for Instagram’s more than 2 billion monthly active users to incorporate it into their routines.
Celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Jennifer Lopez, as well as well-known politicians like Democratic U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, were among the first to sign up for the new platform.
“Let’s proceed. Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, posted his first message on the app with the words “Welcome to Threads” and a fire emoji. In seven hours, he claimed, 10 million people signed up for the app.
Ahead of the launch, Meta stock ended the day on Wednesday up 3%.
As of its launch, Threads can be downloaded from the App Store or the Google Play Store in more than a hundred different countries, excluding only the European Union (EU) out of compliance concerns with local data privacy laws.
