Mostly, It's All About Tech... Mostly.

Threads from Instagram — Launch Day Review

Here are 10 takeaways from playing with Threads (from Instagram) this morning:

  1. It imports from and links to your profile and followers from Instagram. This is important to understand. See points 5, 6 and 7.
  2. You can have a different profile picture than your one on Instagram, but you can only change your username if you go back to Instagram to do it.
  3. It works mostly like Twitter; you post short posts with optional pictures or video attached.
  4. #hashtags do not seem to be implemented, but you can @ people.
  5. There is no public 'feed of everything'. There is some sort of 'feed' but it seems to be purely just posts from Meta Verified users (blue-tick)
  6. Anything you post will ONLY be seen by your followers unless you are Meta Verified (if you have a blue-tick on Instagram, you'll have one on Threads). This one is so far semi-anecdotal. I don't have a blue tick, and it's obvious that no one is even seeing my posts.
  7. If your followers on Instagram aren't on threads, they sit in the 'pending followers' tab. (I only have a few close friends on Instagram, and none of them have joined Threads, yet)
  8. It's based on #fediverse technology — Meta says they'll open up threads so that other 'verses can sync with it. Their track record doesn't inspire confidence on that one, though.
  9. Because of how the fediverse works, there will never be an easy "globally search for a thing, and see what people are saying" option, which will confuse many people.
  10. The client has annoying UI bugs on Android: the on-screen keyboard hides the reply box, so you can't see what you are typing, and the post button is also hidden. Plus, there's no web app either as a workaround.

So already on launch day, the platform is split into the blue-ticks and the plebs. All the blue-tickers think it's great and are interacting with each other actively, and I guess that the plebs that are also on there are currently shouting into the wind and wondering why no one can hear them.

Right now, I can't see this being a Twitter beater. It is just Instagram but for words, and I think it will be used as a 'broadcast only' platform for Celebs and Brands.