Meta Threads review: DailyMail.com tests Zuckerberg’s new Twitter rival app
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Moments after Meta’s new Threads app launched, a friend commented in a Thread, “This is more brutal than disabling the cage fight would have been.”
Mark Zuckerberg has certainly had a swing with Threads, which already feels like a bustling, vibrant community, complete with a ready-made blue-tick aristocracy from Gordon Ramsay to Shakira.
The app has been launched in more than 100 countries and has already had a whopping 10 million signups in the first few hours.
Much of the chatter on Threads currently revolves around the platform itself: “Twitter is dying,” one user claims, while another asks, “Is this the new Bebo?”
So how is Threads to use and does it really live up to the hype? DailyMail.com installed the new app and tested all features.
How is Threads to use and does it really live up to the hype? DailyMail.com installed the new app and tested all features
What is Threads and how easy is it to use?
Threads looks clean and simple and offers a text-based interface that feels very familiar if you’ve used Twitter.
It’s so similar that as the day progressed, “classic” Twitter virals, such as the dress that could be either blue-and-black or white-and-gold, have started popping up on Threads.
There’s a reply button, a repost button, and (refreshingly) an option to repost a thread on other social platforms, including Twitter – something that’s sorely missing from Twitter and other social platforms.
Meta has put a lot of emphasis on the fact that (unlike Musk’s Twitter) there won’t be any attempt to lock people up, and that Threads accounts will be open and easily portable to other platforms.
Replies are grouped with a line running down the side, similar to conversations on Reddit.
At the moment, the feed is pleasantly devoid of ads, promoted posts, and videos (although this will no doubt change at some point).
There’s also a full range of safety features: you can block specific words, unfollow, block and restrict profiles.
In addition, accounts you previously blocked on Instagram will also be blocked on Threads.
Follow the Daily Mail on Threads here
Mark Zuckerberg has certainly come out swinging with Threads, which already feels like a bustling, vibrant community complete with a ready-made blue-tick aristocracy from Gordon Ramsay to Shakira
Threads looks clean and simple and offers a text-based interface that feels very familiar if you’ve used Twitter
Is it easy to create an account?
Set up is a pleasantly simple process using your Instagram account details, which you can customize as you see fit, add a biography or change your image.
If you have an Instagram account, you’ve already pre-booked a Threads username, although it’s worth noting that to completely delete a Threads account, you actually need to delete your Instagram.
You also cannot currently change your username.
However, you can deactivate or set your profile to private, just like you can on Instagram and Twitter.
You get the option to follow the same accounts as you do on Instagram, which can be a bit jarring if you use your Instagram differently than Twitter.
There’s also a full range of safety features: you can block specific words, unfollow, block and restrict profiles
But as with ‘new Twitter’, if you want a blue tick you’ll need to pay for Meta’s £10/month Verified service.
It’s not clear whether the impressive numbers of influencers and celebrities already on Threads have earned the privilege.
The feed here seems to bring “new stuff” more reliably than a refresh on Twitter, although there’s only one feed at the moment, so you can’t filter by just the people you follow.
Threads describes the feed as people you follow, plus “featured content from creators you haven’t discovered yet”
What does the Threads feed look like?
Right now, the algorithm that serves up content seems more arbitrary than the algorithm that underpins Twitter, with a flood of highly online people, influencers, and even the odd crypto person and rabid Elon Musk fan in my feed.
Threads describes the feed as people you follow, plus “featured content from creators you haven’t discovered yet.”
Unlike Twitter, where Elon Musk recently increased the character count for Verified blue tick accounts, most posts on Threads are short and sweet, with posts limited to 500 characters.
Posts can contain up to 10 photos, web links, YouTube videos, and embedded videos of up to five minutes.
What is missing?
There are a few things missing so far that will presumably be added in later updates.
There are no direct messages, no hashtags, and perhaps most disturbing of all, no GIFs.
There isn’t really a meaningful search function either (although Meta promises one will be coming soon).
DailyMail.com tested the current search by searching “dungeons and dragons,” which disappointingly returned the official account for the brand rather than related content.
DailyMail.com tested the current search function by searching “dungeons and dragons,” which disappointingly returned the official account for the brand rather than related content
No limits
Compared to Musk’s recent chaotic attempts to stop scraping on Twitter, everything is open here.
Threads will be compatible with ActivityPub, an open social networking protocol built to work with other apps, including Mastodon and WordPress.
In time, this means users will be free to move their content to another service – which feels like a breath of fresh air after Musk’s frantic attempts to “take control of Twitter.”