THREADS - Meta / Facebook's TWITTER Killer - 150M+ Users - Add Your @

[Kriselda Gray]

I hope Threads develops something like Tweetdeck. Tweetdeck was the only reason I kept my Twitter account. I tried Mastadon and Post but they had no similar interface. If I have to pay $8 monthly I am gone. Even if they do not have something at launch I think Threads will eventually develop something or a third party will. Tweetdeck was developed by a third party and sold to Twitter.

I laugh when the media says "Tweetdeck is primarily used by large companies". I have no idea where they got that notion. For me it is just a convenient tool to follow Twitter accounts I like, lists, and particular subject matter elections and trials.

Mastadon does have a similar interface - I believe to access it you go uder settings or preeferences and it's inder advanced UI or something similar (I don't have my tablet handy to check it and haven't been using Mastadon on my PC, so I can't easliy access it right now.) It's built into the main webapp though and works beautifully.

[RTH10260]

Threads app: Instagram owner’s Twitter rival logs 5 million users in first hours
Mark Zuckerberg targets Elon Musk’s troubled platform with new app from Meta that’s closely modelled on Twitter

Dan Milmo Global technology editor
Thu 6 Jul 2023 04.49 BST

Meta’s Twitter rival, Threads, logged five million sign-ups in its first four hours of operation, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, as the company seeks to woo users from Elon Musk’s troubled platform through an offer of lengthier posts, a handful of celebrity backers – and a strong resemblance to its competitor.

The Facebook and Instagram owner brought forward the app’s debut by 15 hours to 7pm EDT in the US and midnight in the UK, making it freely available in 100 countries on the Apple and Google app stores, although regulatory concerns mean it will not be available in the EU.

Brands such as Billboard, HBO, NPR and Netflix had accounts set up within minutes of launch. Meta said initial celebrity backers included Shakira and Gordon Ramsay, with a recent report suggesting that Oprah Winfrey and the Dalai Lama had also been approached.

Thread users will need an Instagram account to log in. Once they have signed up, they can choose to follow the same accounts they follow on Instagram, if they too have joined the new app.

The app closely resembles Twitter visually, although some of the wording has been changed, with retweets called “reposts” and tweets called “threads”. Meta has not been averse to copying rival products in the past, including the 2020 launch of Instagram’s Reels feature, noted for its similarity to TikTok’s short-form videos.

Posts on Threads can be 500 characters long, compared with 280 for most Twitter users, and videos of up to five minutes in length can be posted while a post can be shared as a link on other platforms. Users can unfollow, block, restrict or report others. Users can also filter out replies with certain words in them.



https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... -countries

[RTH10260]

"Threads felt like a fever dream in which Twitter and Instagram had a more usable brain child"

a review in The Guardian: We tried Threads, Meta’s new Twitter rival. Here’s what happened

[Reality Check]

Mastadon does have a similar interface - I believe to access it you go uder settings or preeferences and it's inder advanced UI or something similar (I don't have my tablet handy to check it and haven't been using Mastadon on my PC, so I can't easliy access it right now.) It's built into the main webapp though and works beautifully.

Yes, I use the advanced interface on Mastodon. I do not find it nearly as intuitive or useful as TweetDeck is was.

[Kriselda Gray]

So, is threads mobile only or is there a way we luddite PC users can get in on the fun?

Off Topic

Mastadon does have a similar interface - I believe to access it you go uder settings or preeferences and it's inder advanced UI or something similar (I don't have my tablet handy to check it and haven't been using Mastadon on my PC, so I can't easliy access it right now.) It's built into the main webapp though and works beautifully.

Yes, I use the advanced interface on Mastodon. I do not find it nearly as intuitive or useful as TweetDeck is was.

Ah, ok

[Reality Check]

From what I understand there is no browser web interface for Threads. You have to use either the iOS or Android app. That's not good.

[Reality Check]

I created an Instagram account with one of my Facebook ID's. I was able to log into Threads on my iPhone. The interface is basic and very like Twitter. I found a few familiar names to follow. Not bad for day 1.

[Jim]

[Reality Check]

Seems to be succeeding on Day 1. No wonder Elmo is pissed.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/06/tech ... itter.html

Two hours after pressing the launch button on Wednesday on Threads, Instagram’s new app for real-time, public conversations, Mark Zuckerberg posted that more than two million people had downloaded his latest creation.

That was just the beginning.

Another two hours later, five million people had downloaded Threads. By the time Mr. Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Meta, went to bed on Wednesday night, the number of downloads had soared to 10 million. When he woke on Thursday morning, the app had been downloaded more than 30 million times, he said.

In less than a day, Threads — which is aimed as a rival to Twitter — appears to have taken the crown as the most rapidly downloaded app ever. It easily outstripped ChatGPT, the chatbot, which was downloaded one million times within its first five days, according to OpenAI, ChatGPT’s maker. And it is on pace to exceed ChatGPT’s 100 million users within two months, which was the fastest to reach that number ever, according to the analytics firm Similarweb.

[Luke]

Desktop is coming, it was supposed to be ready for launch but maybe they're waiting for the apps to settle. I'm waiting for desktop for now. We've joked at how GRFTR and the others were Twitter clones and Elmo did nothing. Well, now he's seething.

Twitter sends Meta cease-and-desist letter over new Threads app: Sources
Mark Zuckerberg's new app has been a sensation in its first 24 hours.
By Aaron Katersky and Mark Osborne July 6, 2023, 4:52 PM

Twitter sent Meta a cease-and-desist letter over the newly launched Threads app, sources familiar with the letter's existence told ABC News. The letter was sent by Twitter's legal team Wednesday, the sources said. The letter accused Meta of misappropriating Twitter's trade secrets and said Meta hired former Twitter employees who retained proprietary information, the sources said. "Over the past year, Meta has hired dozens of former Twitter employees," the letter, signed by lawyer Alex Spiro, reads. "Twitter knows that these employees previously worked at Twitter; that these employees had and continue to have access to Twitter's trade secrets and other highly confidential information; that these employees owe ongoing obligations to Twitter; and that many of these employees have improperly retained Twitter documents and electronic devices."

It continues, "With that knowledge, Meta deliberately assigned these employees to develop, in a matter of months, Meta's copycat 'Threads' app with the specific intent that they use Twitter's trade secrets and other intellectual property in order to accelerate the development of Meta's competing app, in violation of both state and federal law as well as those employees' ongoing obligations to Twitter." Twitter, in an effort to significantly slash costs, cut roughly 75% of its 7,500-person workforce not long after Musk acquired the company last year. In response to a tweet about the cease-and-desist letter, Elon Musk wrote on Twitter, "Competition is fine, cheating is not." Andy Stone, a spokesperson for Meta, said in a post on Threads, "No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee — that’s just not a thing."

Threads, which is built off the existing Instagram app, has been extremely popular in its first 24 hours since release. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday morning the app had already signed up 30 million users. Social media stars began flocking to the platform late Wednesday when it launched. Kim Kardashian had amassed 1.7 million followers by Thursday afternoon, while singer Shakira had 1.4 million and Zuckerberg himself also had 1.4 million as of Thursday afternoon. Threads has been seen as a top rival to Twitter, which was purchased by Elon Musk in October 2022 for roughly $44 billion, and has been embroiled in controversy ever since. In his latest controversial decision, Musk announced July 1 that Twitter would be limiting the number of tweets people can view each day.

https://abcnews.go.com/Business/twitter ... =100794420

[pipistrelle]

I downloaded, although for now will probably be looking more at Post.

What I'm really thinking is I grew up and lived as an adult without all this access.

[Luke]

Now 48 million downloaded in 24 hours. Verge is posting updates.

[MN-Skeptic]

Zuckerberg should send a thank you note to Musk.

[pipistrelle]

I downloaded but it remains to be seen if it becomes another fascist cesspool.

It's too bad. I'm fond of the tweety bird Twitter logo.

[RTH10260]

and the complaint from the truthier platform, I would have thought they ought to be happy to offer their non-censoring platform

Friend,



Meta — owner of Facebook and Instagram — recently launched a new social media platform, Threads. In true Big Tech fashion, Threads began censoring conservatives within a few hours of launching

[RTH10260]

Threads review: Twitter without the rough edges or news
Site has potential to suck the remaining life – and advertising revenue – out of Musk’s struggling network

Jim Waterson Media editor
Thu 6 Jul 2023 17.43 BST

Imagine a social network where users have invested so much social capital in putting up data about themselves that it is impossible to imagine them leaving. Moving to a new site would be an enormous risk for users because you would lose your network of friends. The network’s entire existence, the theory goes, is secured by these barriers to starting afresh at a new outlet.

This was how the Guardian described Myspace in 2007, when the early social network had 150 million global users, a number so large it was considered improbable that they would ever move elsewhere. (In the end Myspace was soon overtaken by Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook, Rupert Murdoch lost almost all the money he spent buying the site, and Myspace’s once-ubiquitous founder Tom Anderson has travelled the world on the profits ever since.)

Sixteen years later, Elon Musk’s Twitter is also testing the theory that people remain loyally addicted to their favoured social network until suddenly, one day, they give up and move elsewhere. This weeek Zuckerberg launched Threads, a new platform aimed at winning over people who, in the words of one executive, want somewhere a bit like Twitter that is “sanely run”.

After a day using Threads, one thing is pretty clear: it is not Twitter. But Threads has the potential to be something different and powerful: Twitter with fewer rough edges, more corporate sheen, and enough potential to suck the remaining life – and advertising revenue – out of Musk’s struggling network.

The biggest difference is that Threads feels substantially less confrontational, less aggressive, and less based around shouting at strangers with different political views than Twitter. The racism, antisemitism, transphobia and general abuse that is prevalent on Twitter is just nowhere near as visible. Zuckerberg told a user on the site that this was a design feature: “The goal is to keep it friendly as it expands … That’s one reason why Twitter never succeeded as much as I think it should have, and we want to do it differently.”



https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/ ... es-or-news

[raison de arizona]

IMG_5281.png (53.15 KiB) Viewed 854 times

[Luke]

NBC News with a "Top O' The Morning, Elmo"

Threads hits 100 million users, fueling doubts about Twitter

Twitter Tanking.JPG (60.67 KiB) Viewed 764 times

Matthew Prince, CEO of Cloudflare, shared a screenshot to Twitter Sunday showing that traffic on the platform was “tanking.”
July 10, 2023, 9:37 AM EDT / Source: CNBC.com By Ashley Capoot, CNBC

User traffic on Twitter has slowed since the launch of Meta’s text-based platform Threads, which has already surpassed 100 million sign-ups since its debut last week, according to a third party tracker. Threads launched in the U.S. Wednesday and is being touted by Meta executives like Instagram chief Adam Mosseri as a more positive “public square” for communities “that never really embraced Twitter.” So far, users seem to be on board. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Friday that the social media platform already had 70 million sign-ups. “Way beyond our expectations,” Zuckerberg said in a post.

Twitter appears to have taken a hit. Matthew Prince, CEO of Cloudflare, shared a screenshot to Twitter Sunday showing that traffic on the platform was “tanking.” Twitter responded to CNBC’s request for comment with an automated response. Meta did not immediately respond.

The booming growth on Threads is helped by the fact that it is tied to an existing social network, Meta’s Instagram. Users can sign up with their existing handles on Instagram and are able to retain some of their following as others sign up for the app. Threads reached the 100 million milestone even faster than OpenAI’s generative chatbot ChatGPT, which surpassed 100 million monthly users in two months.

The app still has lots of room to grow, having not yet launched in Europe, where Mosseri said there is still some regulatory complexity to navigate. If Threads is able to retain its userbase, it could solidify its position as a real competitor for Twitter, which reported nearly 238 million monetizable daily active users in its last quarterly earnings report as public company last summer.

Twitter owner Elon Musk appears to have already shown some concern about Threads, as his longtime lawyer Alex Spiro wrote a letter to Meta accusing the company of “unlawful misappropriation” of trade secrets. Musk and Zuckerberg were also taking shots at one another over the weekend, as Zuckerberg mocked Musk’s tweet style and Musk called Zuckerberg a derogatory name.

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-med ... -rcna93399

[Reality Check]

@emptywheel (Marcie Wheeler) says she will not be going to Threads.

One has to question journalists who jump to a social media site that 1) curates their stream to truth for them, with no choice to influence the process and 2) spies on their contacts.

[Flatpoint High]

and the complaint from the truthier platform, I would have thought they ought to be happy to offer their non-censoring platform

Friend,



Meta — owner of Facebook and Instagram — recently launched a new social media platform, Threads. In true Big Tech fashion, Threads began censoring conservatives within a few hours of launching

yeahbutt, the 'censoring' was of traitor tot being fact checked.

[somerset]

@emptywheel (Marcie Wheeler) says she will not be going to Threads.

One has to question journalists who jump to a social media site that 1) curates their stream to truth for them, with no choice to influence the process and 2) spies on their contacts.

Peer review is bitch

[chancery]

One has to question journalists who jump to a social media site that 1) curates their stream to truth for them, with no choice to influence the process and 2) spies on their contacts.

[/quote]

What does this mean? Threads has access to the contacts app on my phone? Or just that Threads knows with whom I interact while using Threads?

[neonzx]

What does this mean? Threads has access to the contacts app on my phone? Or just that Threads knows with whom I interact while using Threads?

Data that "threads" steals from your phone:

Health & Fitness
Financial Info
Contact Info
User Content
Browsing History
Usage Data
Diagnostics
Purchases
Location
Contacts
Search History
Identifiers
Sensitive Info
Other Data

It's META, you know they have no respect for privacy.


How Threads’ privacy policy compares to Twitter’s (and its rivals’)
https://arstechnica.com/security/2023/0 ... ts-rivals/

[MN-Skeptic]

I haven't signed up for Threads yet, but, with its current intrusion into my privacy, I'm seriously thinking of getting a standalone device totally unconnected to the real me in order to access these sites.

[chancery]

What does this mean? Threads has access to the contacts app on my phone? Or just that Threads knows with whom I interact while using Threads?

Data that "threads" steals from your phone:

Health & Fitness
Financial Info
Contact Info
User Content
Browsing History
Usage Data
Diagnostics
Purchases
Location
Contacts
Search History
Identifiers
Sensitive Info
Other Data

I don't think that this really answers the question.

People refer to "Instagram contacts," for instance, which aren't necessarily the same as the information on the iphone/Mac contacts app. On an iPhone, for instance, you can manage which apps can access your contacts app. My seldom-used Instagram account doesn't have access to my contacts.

And I haven't (yet) heard that the Threads app won't work unless it's given access to the information in a user's contacts app.