Mark Zuckerberg’s Threads makes it out of Meta’s group chat

Meta’s new text-based Threads surpassed 2 million users on Thursday, including thousands of Aussies who flocked to the new social media platform looking to challenge Twitter.

Thousands of Australians flocked to Mark Zuckerberg’s new text-based app Threads on Thursday as the new Twitter rival launched on Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play store.

The new application – limited to mobile use – was launched a day ahead of schedule, arriving one day after Twitter limited the number of tweets non-paying users could see in a single day.

By 11am, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was boasting of the new app reaching 2 million users, many of whom raced to the platform in a bid to become one of its early pioneers and nab a large following.

Just two hours later, the figure had grown to over 5 million which included a number of Australians and politicians including the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.

Mark Zuckerberg's confirms 2 million have flocked to Threads.

Threads arrives as somewhat of a testing ground for Meta which is planning to use the content of some users to test an open social networking future, in which the content of different applications will be able to appear on different app feeds. That open social network – often referred to as decentralised – forms part of a protocol called ActivityPub which is already used by social networking platforms such as Mastodon. Meta is planning to make Threads compatible with ActivityPub.

The platform for now is linked directly to a user’s Instagram account, and most Instagram usernames – often referred to as handles – are understood to be reserved on the new app for those users.

 

The application takes seconds to set up, allowing a user to import links, images, biographies and the list of people they follow directly from Instagram into Threads. It appears there is no option to sign up without an Instagram account.

The new app immediately imports a user’s privacy settings, restricting and blocking users from Instagram. The app allows users to filter out replies and hidden words.

While Meta’s new app allows users to automatically follow those they follow on Instagram, user feeds include a combination of suggested content as well as that of those they follow.

Many Australian businesses and media outlets have raced to put their first posts on the platform, many trying to nab early engagement on the platform.

Mr Zuckerbarg's first post on Threads.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews was among those to crack a joke on the platform, responding to a question from a Sydney lifestyle publication asking for go-to coffee spots.

“Melbourne,” he wrote, re-sharing the original post.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese similarly played along with another joke from Mr Andrews which asked, “everyone right to go?”.

“Ready over here,” he responded.

Mr Andrews and Mr Albanese are among thousands of Australians who were quick to make the switch on Thursday.

Other MPs and ministers including Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney, Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek, Science Minister Ed Husic, Assistant Foreign Affairs Minister Tim Watts and Immigration Minister Andrew Giles.

Perfect timing - Instagram's Twitter rival, Threads, has appeared in the Australian app store ahead of a likely launch this Thursday pic.twitter.com/ubdgPmiIH9

— David Swan (@swan_legend) July 3, 2023

Mr Zuckerberg returned to Twitter for the first time in 11 years to spread the word on his new platform, posting a meme which showed two Spider-Man characters pointing at each other.

He also jumped on Threads, writing: “Glad you’re all here on day one. Let’s build something great together!”

The Facebook founder went on to say that Threads was built to be a “friendly public space”.

“The vision for Threads is to create an open and friendly public space for conversation. We hope to take what Instagram does best and create a new experience around text, ideas and discussing what’s on your mind,” he posted in the same thread.

Meta has ditched the hashtag on the new platform but is understood to be testing different social media methods and trends over coming weeks.

The Threads appeared in app stores on Tuesday but the official launch was held off until Thursday.

The name behind Meta’s new app refers to a string of posts on social media in which a user uses the respond or reply function to their latest message which creates a thread of posts.

The method has long been used to get around character counts or to provide updates on certain events.

Posts on Threads can include up to 500 characters as well as links, photos and up to five minute videos.