WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THREADS AND TWITTER?
LEARN THE APP IN ONLY 3 MINUTES
Instagram, owned by Facebook’s parent company Meta, officially launched Threads on July 6. The user interface of Threads is similar to Twitter, which focuses on text sharing. It has gathered 100 million users in just 5 days after the official launch. Threads’ reputation is even wider than ChatGPT, causing widespread discussion among the community. There are two important questions nowadays: how to operate and use Threads? Do marketers need to follow up? AsiaKOL is here to help you understand the functions of Threads and the biggest differences between Threads and Twitter in a flash.
1. About Threads
Different from Twitter which occasionally features sensitive content, Threads was founded to create positive and meaningful interactions, with nudity and sexual content out of the question. The app can restrict specific people from replying to and mentioning your posts, as well as filter or hide comments on the posts. Users can also click the three-dot function menu in the upper right corner of the account to unfollow, block, restrict, or report others. For accounts that are blocked on Instagram, the system will automatically synchronize the blocked list to Threads.
Threads is bound to an Instagram account. What's more special is that if users want to stop using Threads, they can only choose "deactivate account". At the moment, Meta does not have a direct way to delete Threads account. If users want to completely delete Threads account, they must delete Instagram account at the same time. This mechanism of such new app is currently criticized by users. On the other hand, one of the convenient features of the app is allowing users to track their original Instagram friends with just one click. For private accounts, users need to manually confirm the friend requests.
Eight months after Musk took over Twitter, the new system has angered some users, making them switch to other social platforms. So far, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has launched Threads. The posting mode of the new app is somewhat similar to Twitter, showing their ambition to replace Twitter as the preferred social platform for media, officials, and celebrities. Moreover, tying with IG enables Threads to rapidly grow users, which has deeply threatened Twitter. Thus, the relationship between the founders of Meta and Twitter has become tense.
2. How to start using Threads?
Step 1: Get an Instagram account first:
First of all, Threads is part of the Instagram platform. Users must first register an Instagram account or have an Instagram account before starting to use Threads.
Step 2: Download Threads:
After getting an Instagram account, users can download Threads via App Store or Google Play. Next, enter "Threads" on Instagram’s search bar, and a red exclusive invitation will pop up.
Step 3: Edit personal profile:
After downloading Threads, users can choose to directly connect Instagram account or manually select a profile photo. Users also need to type in bios. Besides, when users link to Instagram directly, Threads will import user information such as name, profile, tracking account number, etc. For those whose original Instagram account has a "Blue Tick", it will also appear on Threads.
Step 4: Privacy setting:
Regardless of whether using Instagram to link or manually register Threads, users can choose to set their account as "public" or "private". A public account means all Threads users can follow and view your posts, while private account means that only social accounts with your consent can view your posts. To some extent, it is similar to Instagram’s tracking model.
Step 5: Start to post:
Click the icon in the bottom middle of Threads to post a text-based thread, or add photos or videos to the post. Users can use "@" to mention others, reply to other people's posts, and use features such as quoting or reposting.
Step 6: The mysterious code:
After registering Threads, users will find a series of mysterious numbers in their profiles at the top of Instagram. The meaning of this series of codes represents the ordinal number you are in joining Threads. And that’s all for the registration process.
3. What are the functions and specifications of Threads?
As a fast-rising app, Threads was developed and designed by the Instagram team. However, different from Instagram which uses pictures to communicate, Threads mainly allows users to communicate and interact with texts. Currently, Threads has no private message function like Instagram. The maximum text limit for each post in Threads is 500 words. Posts can be presented in pictures and videos up to 5 minutes long, and users can also share links in posts. However, Threads is currently unavailable in the EU due to regulatory restrictions.
4. Threads’ current content direction
Threads has only been launched for two weeks. The current content is mainly posted by celebrities and influencers. After following up, users might not be active on Threads regularly, and it will take some time to observe the content trend.
5. The differences between Threads and Twitter
Here are the six main differences between Threads and Twitter:
Facing the rapid rise of the new platform Threads, marketers need to understand and master it first but do not necessarily need to blindly follow the trend immediately. For example, Clubhouse, which was once a smash hit, did not let Taiwanese users develop the habit of using it. Threads currently does not have advertising functions and cannot replace Facebook and Instagram for the time being. Therefore, in the short term, marketers can first evaluate the functions of Threads to see whether it can meet the company's marketing needs. If time and capacity are limited, it’s better to focus on operating the current mature community platform. However, marketers might as well think ahead about how to make good use of Threads to interact with the potential audiences in the future, and preemptively deploy to bring more business opportunities.
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