8 ms·

Threads Is Now Live

115 points by mfiguiere 3y ago

agnosticmantis 3y ago
It seems like there’s no edit button (yet).
paxys 3y ago
Early impressions: - The app is very clean. Black text on white background. Only the bare minimum functionality – post threads, follow accounts, see a single (algorithmically curated) feed. Not flashy, no ads. Of course chances of it staying this way are close to zero. - There is no "trending" section, which is surprising. You'd think that was one aspect of Twitter they would have copied first. Or maybe they are waiting to introduce it over the coming days once there are more users. - They managed to pre-seed a ton of content from celebrities and other top Instagram accounts, so even on day 0 with a brand new account you start with a full feed and the place seems "alive". - App is handling the incoming load like a champ. Everything loads with no perceptible lag, even though I'm sure it is getting hammered from every angle right now. This is where the backing of Meta engineering shines (over Twitter/Bluesky/Mastadon etc. which have all struggled to stay up lately). - There isn't Fediverse support yet but your profile does show which server you belong to (right now threads.net by default), which is pretty neat.
- cryptoegorophy 3y ago
  no lag? it is lagging like crazy for me.
- ekianjo 3y ago
  Mastodon struggling to stay up where? Its decentralized.
  - paxys 3y ago
    A decentralized app still has servers. mastodon.social (which hosts the majority of the user base) was struggling with load and down as recently as 4 days ago (see https://status.mastodon.social https://status.mastodon.social).
    - ekianjo 3y ago
      Thats the problem of one instance. Not with Mastodon as a whole...
    - WaffleIronMaker 3y ago
      mastodon.social does not represent the majority of users. Any stability issues on mastodon.social are noteworthy, but it's important to recognize that it only represents 1,370,000/9,930,000 = 13% of total users, and 387,000/1,790,000 = 21% of Monthly active users. If you don't use Mastodon, it might be easy to assume that the experience would be filled with blackouts or technical issues, but that's not true. If "picking a good server" sounds difficult, check out Mastodon's server page, and hopefully you should find one that fits your interest [3]. [1] https://fedidb.org/network/instance/mastodon.social https://fedidb.org/network/instance/mastodon.social [2] https://fedidb.org/ https://fedidb.org/ [3] https://joinmastodon.org/servers https://joinmastodon.org/servers
      - kaba0 3y ago
        That’s a very sizable percentage of all of its users, so it’s a bit like saying that apple is technically not a majority, so it not being good at X is not a big deal. Don’t get me wrong, I say that as someone who likes Mastodon and many of its ideas. My only gripe is a lack of focus on privacy - the fediverse makes everything overly public.
- fotta 3y ago
  I hope they'll give us a chronological, following-only feed like Instagram and Twitter already have.
  - paxys 3y ago
    My theory is that they are delaying launching it until everyone has more followers, to prevent the impression that it is a ghost town.
    - fotta 3y ago
      That makes sense. It certainly seems to have a lot more content than Bluesky already, but maybe it's just the algorithm.
      - noarchy 3y ago
        Given that some of us have been on waiting lists for what seems like months, it isn't surprising that Bluesky is short on content.
  - heartbreak 3y ago
    Adam Mosseri posted on Threads that it’s coming. https://www.threads.net/t/CuVlg88I84C/?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ== https://www.threads.net/t/CuVlg88I84C/?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ...
- nicce 3y ago
  > This is where the backing of Meta engineering shines (over Twitter/Bluesky/Mastadon etc. which have all struggled to stay up lately). Deep pockets also help.
- nkozyra 3y ago
  > There is no "trending" section, which is surprising. Seems like a cold start problem. I'd expect recommendations in general to improve soon.
- WaffleIronMaker 3y ago
  I've been using Mastodon recently, and I've really enjoyed my experience. I guess some big instances may have difficulty with scale, but I've really enjoyed my experience on a smaller instance. It's interesting to me how dismissive people are of Mastodon, when it's basically been perfect for me. I enjoyed Jeff Atwood's post on the matter [1]. > People say "decentralization doesn't work as good as the centralized facebooks and twitters", but then I post here on highly decentralized Mastodon a silly little joke about the commando character in the old video game Command & Conquer from 1995 and get a response from someone who worked on the original game! .. uh, maybe it is working already? Mastodon doesn't need perfect scalability and uptime to be better than Threads. Instead, it succeeds by aligning the platform's values with the user's, by not treating the user as a product to monetize. [1] https://infosec.exchange/@codinghorror/110656567413673113 https://infosec.exchange/@codinghorror/110656567413673113
  - sneak 3y ago
    Isn't infosec.exchange shutting down, thus validating the concept that it doesn't work?
    - Kye 3y ago
      Where did you hear this? There's nothing in the announcements about a shutdown aside from the maintenance on the 6th.
      - sneak 3y ago
        Oops, I must be confusing it with a different instance.
    - WaffleIronMaker 3y ago
      I don't believe it's shutting down? The website appears to be stable, and its users are donating $2,285/month to support it [1]. It seems both technically and financially stable to me. Let me know if I'm missing something though. [1] https://www.patreon.com/infosecexchange https://www.patreon.com/infosecexchange
wilg 3y ago
I hope chronological timeline of only people you follow is coming, presumably that would be terrible at launch since you have no followers?
- denlekke 3y ago
  i'd be more likely to log in again if they showed me an empty feed or let me switch between distinct feeds of "only ppl you follow" and "recommended" right now, seeing them both together makes me not wanna sign in again
  - wilg 3y ago
    Just check back in like a month and it will probably be more stabilized
- timbit42 3y ago
  Even if they do offer that, eventually they will remove it so they can show you want they want you to see like every other commercial social media site so they can make a few more cents. Why even bother signing up?
  - ahahahahah 3y ago
    Wow what an insightful comment... I mean, I guess by that reasoning someday both Facebook and Instagram will remove their chronological timeline of only people you follow, maybe some day soon. I guess I'm surprised you didn't consider them to be part of your "every other social media site" given they're like among the largest in the world.
  - astrange 3y ago
    The reason TikTok is so popular is that they show you what you want to see. Being purposely annoying and showing you things you don't want is a specific issue of Facebook caused by letting too many PMs run wild, it's not actually a good business move. The other reasons for it are: - most users are not power users and don't follow a lot of people, but still want to see content - a true chronological timeline would include bad posts (an acquaintance who spams or mass-RTs annoying content) and misses good ones (important life updates from your friends 12 hours ago)
ALittleLight 3y ago
My prediction: a little buzz for a few weeks, followed by flop.
rbarnes01 3y ago
It was my understanding that Threads was scheduled to launch tomorrow. What happened?
- notacoward 3y ago
  AFAICT (just checked) it hasn't actually hit Android yet. Apparently iOS users got a jump on everyone else. I'm sure as soon as there's a web version my existing Facebook feed will be practically papered over with announcements.
  - etra0 3y ago
    The site now links to the Threads app for Android [1] too, I just tested it and it's working fine [2]. Maybe it's a regional thing? [1] https://www.threads.net/download https://www.threads.net/download [2] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.instagram.barcelona https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.instagram....
    - notacoward 3y ago
      Having worked there, it's probably more of a gradual-rollout thing. I guess Gatekeeper hadn't added my "social hash" to the enabled range yet.
  - stevenhubertron 3y ago
    I downloaded it on my Android about 90 minutes ago.
- Tsiklon 3y ago
  Seems to have launched at midnight U.K. time
cyberax 3y ago
Yet another crapp instead of a normal webapp. Why the heck companies keep pushing them?
- codsane 3y ago
  Ads, tracking, and analytics. The usual, unfortunately.
- wilg 3y ago
  I'm sure it will have a web version at some point relatively soon. But of course you want a native app for a Twitter clone, most people use it on their phone!
- emodendroket 3y ago
  I think users somewhat prefer the app experience.
- mezeek 3y ago
  They make much more money with apps, and non-technical people prefer finding an app to entering a URL (because they also don't know about bookmarks).
- Barrin92 3y ago
  Smartphones are now the primary computing device for 70-90% of people depending on what demographics you look at. Smartphones shipped last year 1.2 billion, desktops 70 million. That's about the long and short of it.
  - fabrice_d 3y ago
    286 millions PC shipments in 2022 according to https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2023-01-11-gartner-says-worldwide-pc-shipments-declined-28-percent-in-fourth-quarter-of-2022-and-16-percent-for-the-year https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2023-01-1...
- poomer 3y ago
  Having worked in analytics at various tech companies including Fb, the reason is almost always just that app users have way higher usage rates and ad clickthrough rates. Of course if you know basic stats you will realize this is spurious correlation (social media addicts prefer apps, using an app doesn't make one a social media addict), but somehow management never cares.
square_usual 3y ago
No web UI, it looks like. threads.net only has a QR code.
- charcircuit 3y ago
  https://www.threads.net/@zuck https://www.threads.net/@zuck
karlshea 3y ago
It would be super annoying if it ends up co-opting the word "thread" in general.
- bob-09 3y ago
  The way people already use the word "thread" to describe an online conversation is exactly why they picked the name.
  - Dalewyn 3y ago
    I'll give Zuck that it also rolls off the tongue really well compared to, say, Mastodon or really anything so far from the federated multiverse. Rethread (retweet), thread (twitter) feed, etc. Having a catchy name is among the most important steps to success.
    - karlshea 3y ago
      Yeah "toot" is not great and "post" isn't specific enough.
NikolaNovak 3y ago
>>Threads is available on iOS and Android I hate that computer has become a second tier citizen. My phone is a great little computing device, but my computer is an even better, large, comfortable, multitasking, ergonomic computing device.
- fullshark 3y ago
  Especially for writing text
- api 3y ago
  Your phone offers the best opportunity to collect surveillance data, especially since you take it everywhere and provide a constant feed of your location. That’s why even things with web or desktop UIs will try to goad you into installing the mobile app. Look at the list of collected data for Threads in the iOS App Store. It’s basically “everything conceivable as much as possible.”
  - wilg 3y ago
    It doesn't ask for your location
  - astrange 3y ago
    Phones are good at hiding your personal info from apps and your personal info is basically not valuable anyway. This is a conspiracy theory because the idea your data is worth something makes people feel good about themselves.
    - api 3y ago
      Isn’t targeted advertising how social media makes money? Your data isn’t valuable because your life is special and interesting. It’s valuable because it helps micro-target ads at you.
      - astrange 3y ago
        When Facebook ads are good, it's because people are paying to show the ad specifically to you. (Like when you put something in your cart on a web store, don't check out, and then ads follow you around everywhere telling you to go finish buying the thing.) That's not really demographics-based though, it's explicitly tracking you as a person. Otherwise I'm not impressed. I don't try and hide myself from Facebook/Twitter much, but the first keeps trying to sell me Viagra and shirts for fat guys and the second thinks I'm every kind of doctor at the same time.
elashri 3y ago
I hope that they will keep what they promise here (1) that this will be a text experience and don't feel the urgent need to add reels/videos. [1] https://www.threads.net/t/CuVY5CAvfTS/?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ== https://www.threads.net/t/CuVY5CAvfTS/?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ...
- fotta 3y ago
  There's already videos on day 1.
maskedinvader 3y ago
My early impressions: Interface is clean and easy to use/intuitive Not seeing an ad or sponsored posts every 2nd or 3rd story is refreshing, wondering how long that lasts No web app to boot ? Wtf disappointed no web ui yet but hoping that changes and changes soon Also no other way to login apart from instagram ? That’s strange , was hoping for standalone login , hoping it’s eventually rolled out No way to change username even after linking instagram username, this is imho a dumb move, I was late to the instagram party and missed out on shorter username and now was hoping joining threads early would help me get my desired username but alas I noticed the highlighted replies feature where celebrity replies are expanded below some threads , it’s probably a good feature just feel they could have a way of turning it off, I’d rather click into a story to surface those and maximize stories per page and reduce scrolling All in all seems like a decent twitter clone, and lots of features missing but definitely a good start.
- paxys 3y ago
  > No way to change username even after linking instagram username, this is imho a dumb move, I was late to the instagram party and missed out on shorter username and now was hoping joining threads early would help me get my desired username but alas There is a 1:1 mapping of Instagram <-> Threads user names, so even if they let you change it in the app you wouldn't be able to get a shorter one if someone has already claimed it on Instagram.
- joker_minmax 3y ago
  On regular Instagram, I quit using because 20-25% of my feed was sponsored posts. (Although most of my friends only get ads every six or seven, I got ads every three or four posts.) I would imagine it won't be long before they start adding more ads.
  - anonymousiam 3y ago
    Your imagination is spot on. They'll make the experience attractive until they have enough momentum to ruin it.
    - 3y ago
Vervious 3y ago
I mostly use twitter on web, for discovery and for work - Meta, please release a web app soon! They also need to let us change display names; these usernames don't tell us very much. Also, a following-only feed would be great.
EddieJLSH 3y ago
Not available in the EU
lom 3y ago
I’ve downloaded it, like the look. Impressive how many brands they already have. But the feed’s are loading slowly, I’d imagine that will be smoothed out though. I can’t figure out how to follow or find fediverse accounts..? How does this work?
- paxys 3y ago
  > I can’t figure out how to follow or find fediverse accounts..? How does this work? It doesn't (yet). Fediverse compatibility will launch "soon" (https://techcrunch.com/2023/07/05/adam-mosseri-says-metas-threads-app-wont-have-activitypub-support-at-launch/ https://techcrunch.com/2023/07/05/adam-mosseri-says-metas-th...).
  - lom 3y ago
    Oh, surprising. Thought they would use the fediverse to get some content going.
    - wilg 3y ago
      My guess is it would be a disaster trying to launch while also shooting all the content onto Mastadon, which would probably cause some kind of DDOS. Probably a lot better to do it in a controlled manner in a couple weeks when they know what kind of load etc they're dealing with.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
emodendroket 3y ago
Probably the most hype around a me-too product in recent memory.
rvz 3y ago
Ladies and Gentlemen. This is how you do a proper launch with very fast 'adoption' and an extremely smooth transition with little downtime. Obviously executed to perfection by no-one else but Meta Platforms. The one who's stock was once predicted right here to go to $0 because of its chaotic stock price drop, and is now celebrated with potentially finding another billion users out of Threads. It made no-sense to bet against Zuck like they did when the stock went down. But this actually destroys the smaller social networks before they even had a chance to grow such as Substack Notes, Post, SPILL, T2, Mastodon, hive.social and cohost.org. They all need money to stay online and Meta has the money to sub-plant them all or buy out the largest networks. Money is power. We'll see how this goes, but there is a pattern with Meta's photocopying machine which didn't kill Snap with Stories, and didn't kill TikTok with Reels. They will co-exist but there will be no immediate Twitter 'death' anytime soon, especially this year. Just running the huge risk of getting broken up due to anti-trust and anti-competition laws by the regulators. (Unless they use ActivityPub as the argument that there is no lock-in on Threads) But as always, Instagram's (Threads) success on ActivityPub is indeed a nightmare for the Fediverse as centralization come up on top. Either way, a great move by Zuckerberg once again.
- jtode 3y ago
  Many instances have promised a schism from Meta, and if they do, they will be a smaller, and much more enjoyable federation. Most people are gonna want Meta, is the general concensus, and I do not disagree. I want Mastodon how it was two months ago, it was great.
- nerdbert 3y ago
  > We'll see how this goes, but there is a pattern with Meta's photocopying machine which didn't kill Snap with Stories, and didn't kill TikTok with Reels. They will co-exist but there will be no immediate Twitter 'death' anytime soon, especially this year. Snap and TikTok weren't busy trying to kill themselves, though.
ctvo 3y ago
I’m giving it a chance. I just need the academics, security, tech, and finance folks to migrate over. I’ll start the virtuous cycle by using it so they see a viable alternative to Twitter. I understand Meta isn’t amazing. I’m looking for Twitter from two years ago: somewhat moderated and working. They’ll give me that here.
SCUSKU 3y ago
Would like to see a way to login without having to create an instagram account. I used to have one but deleted it since I noticed it wasn't doing my mental health any good.
- ErunamoJAZZ 3y ago
  Similar situation here. I have been avoiding Instagram for many years, but I will not create an account for that hell right now just to sniff in Threads.
gemstones 3y ago
Looks like some anti-scraping on day 1, and really twisting the knife for Twitter: https://www.threads.net/t/CuVZfoihkcF https://www.threads.net/t/CuVZfoihkcF Text follows for those without the app, RT from Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram (original tweet from Jesse Chen): FYI for everyone, we’ve set our rate limits to “generous” bc we believe you have the right to see more than 600 posts in a day here. if you encounter a rate limit block and you’re not a scraper, please let us know. thanks!
- holler 3y ago
  Also @zuck roasting Twitter: > Anyone think this can become bigger than twitter!? > It'll take some time, but I think there should be a public conversations app with 1 billion+ people on it. Twitter has had the opportunity to do this but hasn't nailed it. Hopefully we will. https://www.threads.net/t/CuVZQsrJRcr https://www.threads.net/t/CuVZQsrJRcr
paxys 3y ago
Companies need to look at this launch and learn that you don't need idiotic wait lists and invite codes to generate hype for your service. The most important thing is to put it in the hands of users quickly and let them do their thing.
- endisneigh 3y ago
  I mean you have to have an instagram account and instagram is already in the top 20 sites, so..
- Panini_Jones 3y ago
  Facebook was highly exclusive when it first launched. That same company made Threads. I don't know if Facebook would have been as popular if it had not leveraged scarcity.
- astrange 3y ago
  You need them if your infrastructure isn't ready for a flood of users yet, but that just happens to not be true for Meta. Note they are rolling it out by country, maybe because they need per-language mod teams.
sanderjd 3y ago
I don't get it, a big part of the opportunity here is that Twitter just shot itself in the foot by forcing everyone to log in. But I go to the Threads website and there is nothing there, just a link to an app. So I open the app and there's nothing there, just a login form. How does this help?
- aaomidi 3y ago
  Working fine here, and they don’t have a web app. Majority of people use their phone for this, and that’s who they’re targeting.
  - sanderjd 3y ago
    Yes but I can't view any posts (threads? I guess?) because I don't have an account ... just like how I can't use Twitter anymore.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
spike021 3y ago
I haven't been able to post yet, it keeps failing. To be expected. Not _super_ happy that the front page is pulling from people I don't care about but kind of expected. Curious how it'll adapt once people I want to follow start producing... threads?
- spike021 3y ago
  Looks like gifs are the problem (for me). They render fine but on submitting, they repeatedly fail to post. Oh well.
  - nerdbert 3y ago
    I think I might count that as a positive.
    - spike021 3y ago
      Could be! But I see plenty of reels being posted and arguably those are worse (to me at least).
vasili111 3y ago
I wonder how many new users will get Instagram since Threads require Instagram account. I for example, did not had Instagram account before.
- sanderjd 3y ago
  There have already been about ten links on this page that essentially do nothing for me because I don't have an Instagram account. Not sure how this is supposed to replace the use of Twitter for people who want as much reach as possible for their posts.
endisneigh 3y ago
I find it hilarious how people just move from one billionaire platform to another. Humans, man…
- wilsonnb3 3y ago
  I don’t care if the service is run by a billionaire or a 22 year old funded by billionaires or government grants, I just want to read little text snippets that people post. Twitter has gotten worse lately, blue sky isn’t open to the public, and I don’t care about federation so threads seems pretty nice to me.
  - timbit42 3y ago
    Don't worry. It will go south like all the others have soon enough.
lom 3y ago
For everyone outside of the US: You can download it from apkmirror. Worked fine for me
gemstones 3y ago
Among the many lessons for Elon to come out of this - If you publicly announce that making an app is easy and could be done with a fraction of the engineers when you buy it, perhaps it’s unsurprising when a competitor decides that they should make the same app to take your revenue? After all, if it’s so easy to do, maybe it’s the next thing you should do.
comechao 3y ago
With Zuck's track record, Threads will be fun but don't expect transparency.
jampa 3y ago
Word of warning: After activating you account you cannot delete your Threads account without also deleting Instagram's. Also "deactivating" seems not to be working right now. It loads then does nothing. My experience: The algoritm is terrible for me because it higly bias you towards the language of the country you are residing and not the system language. As a Brazilian the only posts I see are from "blue checkmarks" ex-reality TV show people who think they are funny. In every thread blue ticks all over the top, in a cronological order of replies, which means famous people who put the lowest effort will show first. I don't get it, if my system language is in English why show only (Portuguese) Brazilian language? So if I travel or live abroad how would that work?
- drukenemo 3y ago
  Brazilian language aka Portuguese
  - jampa 3y ago
    Technically yes, but not quite. I've added a prefix to clarify, but Portuguese from Portugal is very different from the Brazilian one.
praisewhitey 3y ago
Easily the worst of the twitter alternatives so far. The feed is endless garbage recommended posts with no way to turn them off. At least twitter gives me a tab of only the people I follow.
- wilsonnb3 3y ago
  Compared to scaling issues or having to explain federation to the general public, feed issues are a pretty easy fix so I remain optimistic.
dysoco 3y ago
Apparently, as I feared it might happen, it's linked to your Instagram account. I've seen notifications in Instagram saying "Your friend X just posted for the first time in Threads" this is JUST what I did not want, to have both things linked, my Twitter is silly I don't want my family or old friends to follow me there. Conversely, semi-public figures like journalists or CS researchers might not want people to follow them on Threads so that people don't immediately find their Instagram account (I believe you can still keep that private and have to manually approve followers, though).
- wilsonnb3 3y ago
  Can’t you just make a second account if you want to keep your instagram and threads separate? I don’t think it requires a real identity like Facebook does.
- paxys 3y ago
  You can create as many Instagram accounts as you want. The app even supports logging in to multiple ones at the same time.
- gochi 3y ago
  Multiple accounts solves the problem easily and is why Meta created the account control center or whatever they call it. Even in the instagram account they literally encourage multiple accounts with prompts like “explore a new interest with a new account”. The criticism that I would have here is that Threads lacks this multi account UX, so you would have to log out and in again until they add that.
- hi5eyes 3y ago
  most people have a finsta at this point
mattkevan 3y ago
Shouldn’t the fact it’s not available in the EU and that the app tracking and permission settings seem to basically be ‘everything’ raise a few red flags? Also the fact it’s from Meta, those well known and highly trusted advocates for user privacy.
nharada 3y ago
Will be interesting to see what content ends up here. Will Threads have novel content or will it just be reposts from Twitter (similar to how TikToks end up on Reels)?
DueDilligence 3y ago
[dead]
freewizard 3y ago
First impression so far: - Migrating profile and social graph from Instagram is frictionless. - Federation is not enabled, and my guess is it’s disabled last minute, bc when you type <at>id<at>server, the first <at> is deleted in your post completely. - The visibility control is different from most ActivityPub implementations like Mastodon and etc, but more like Twitter’s . Kinda makes sense from business perspective, but will be tricky to see how this works across federated ActivityPub servers.
yodon 3y ago
Search only returns usernames not content? Total fail.
jkmcf 3y ago
243M iOS app. For what's essentially a list of text. Meta should have enough resources to hire a couple iOS and Android devs to make a native experience. The hard parts are all on the backend.
astrange 3y ago
The front page has decided to show me some of the most annoying celebs I can imagine. I do not need to see any kids Minecraft Youtubers. I'm also kind of surprised they added quote RTs. That's a pretty combative feature.
ChrisArchitect 3y ago
Works fine but quickly get the feeling of like "meh". Bunch of text, whoop. Links work in posts (big for Instagram!)...... but no hashtags? Killing any sort of 'network spread' which is a big deal for conversations greater than just your follows. Something that holds back fediverse and keeps people on twitter is network effects (pros and cons when it comes to promotion of course) Tried a video post and it removed sound/doesn't play properly.....kinks. Kinda wish it would show all my instagram posts automatically in my feed but I guess that's asking alot. The duplication is just a chore tho if that's what everyone ends up doing. Anyways, it's something. The hint in the opening launch screens about the fediverse is definitely interesting (because we know everyone on the other side of that is fuming/blocking). This is a big play. And despite it not being exactly what the mastodon/fediverse heads wanted, it seems like a move in that direction even if it is a big whale jumping in the water with a centralized server vibe. What's big about this to me and why I'm even paying any attention to it at launch is the fact that it will immediately have millions of accounts ready to go because of the instagram porting. That's big right out of the gate. None of that mastodont 'what server do I choose', new address account creation, no name squatting etc to worry about. It's go time. Big play outta Meta which I'm curious how fast it all came together when it's not really that much to it. Let's build a twitter clone and use all the IG accounts. Done.

115 points by mfiguiere 3y ago

It seems like there’s no edit button (yet).

Early impressions: - The app is very clean. Black text on white background. Only the bare minimum functionality – post threads, follow accounts, see a single (algorithmically curated) feed. Not flashy, no ads. Of course chances of it staying this way are close to zero. - There is no "trending" section, which is surprising. You'd think that was one aspect of Twitter they would have copied first. Or maybe they are waiting to introduce it over the coming days once there are more users. - They managed to pre-seed a ton of content from celebrities and other top Instagram accounts, so even on day 0 with a brand new account you start with a full feed and the place seems "alive". - App is handling the incoming load like a champ. Everything loads with no perceptible lag, even though I'm sure it is getting hammered from every angle right now. This is where the backing of Meta engineering shines (over Twitter/Bluesky/Mastadon etc. which have all struggled to stay up lately). - There isn't Fediverse support yet but your profile does show which server you belong to (right now threads.net by default), which is pretty neat.

cryptoegorophy 3y ago
no lag? it is lagging like crazy for me.
ekianjo 3y ago
Mastodon struggling to stay up where? Its decentralized.
- paxys 3y ago
  A decentralized app still has servers. mastodon.social (which hosts the majority of the user base) was struggling with load and down as recently as 4 days ago (see https://status.mastodon.social https://status.mastodon.social).
  - ekianjo 3y ago
    Thats the problem of one instance. Not with Mastodon as a whole...
  - WaffleIronMaker 3y ago
    mastodon.social does not represent the majority of users. Any stability issues on mastodon.social are noteworthy, but it's important to recognize that it only represents 1,370,000/9,930,000 = 13% of total users, and 387,000/1,790,000 = 21% of Monthly active users. If you don't use Mastodon, it might be easy to assume that the experience would be filled with blackouts or technical issues, but that's not true. If "picking a good server" sounds difficult, check out Mastodon's server page, and hopefully you should find one that fits your interest [3]. [1] https://fedidb.org/network/instance/mastodon.social https://fedidb.org/network/instance/mastodon.social [2] https://fedidb.org/ https://fedidb.org/ [3] https://joinmastodon.org/servers https://joinmastodon.org/servers
    - kaba0 3y ago
      That’s a very sizable percentage of all of its users, so it’s a bit like saying that apple is technically not a majority, so it not being good at X is not a big deal. Don’t get me wrong, I say that as someone who likes Mastodon and many of its ideas. My only gripe is a lack of focus on privacy - the fediverse makes everything overly public.
fotta 3y ago
I hope they'll give us a chronological, following-only feed like Instagram and Twitter already have.
- paxys 3y ago
  My theory is that they are delaying launching it until everyone has more followers, to prevent the impression that it is a ghost town.
  - fotta 3y ago
    That makes sense. It certainly seems to have a lot more content than Bluesky already, but maybe it's just the algorithm.
    - noarchy 3y ago
      Given that some of us have been on waiting lists for what seems like months, it isn't surprising that Bluesky is short on content.
- heartbreak 3y ago
  Adam Mosseri posted on Threads that it’s coming. https://www.threads.net/t/CuVlg88I84C/?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ== https://www.threads.net/t/CuVlg88I84C/?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ...
nicce 3y ago
> This is where the backing of Meta engineering shines (over Twitter/Bluesky/Mastadon etc. which have all struggled to stay up lately). Deep pockets also help.
nkozyra 3y ago
> There is no "trending" section, which is surprising. Seems like a cold start problem. I'd expect recommendations in general to improve soon.
WaffleIronMaker 3y ago
I've been using Mastodon recently, and I've really enjoyed my experience. I guess some big instances may have difficulty with scale, but I've really enjoyed my experience on a smaller instance. It's interesting to me how dismissive people are of Mastodon, when it's basically been perfect for me. I enjoyed Jeff Atwood's post on the matter [1]. > People say "decentralization doesn't work as good as the centralized facebooks and twitters", but then I post here on highly decentralized Mastodon a silly little joke about the commando character in the old video game Command & Conquer from 1995 and get a response from someone who worked on the original game! .. uh, maybe it is working already? Mastodon doesn't need perfect scalability and uptime to be better than Threads. Instead, it succeeds by aligning the platform's values with the user's, by not treating the user as a product to monetize. [1] https://infosec.exchange/@codinghorror/110656567413673113 https://infosec.exchange/@codinghorror/110656567413673113
- sneak 3y ago
  Isn't infosec.exchange shutting down, thus validating the concept that it doesn't work?
  - Kye 3y ago
    Where did you hear this? There's nothing in the announcements about a shutdown aside from the maintenance on the 6th.
    - sneak 3y ago
      Oops, I must be confusing it with a different instance.
  - WaffleIronMaker 3y ago
    I don't believe it's shutting down? The website appears to be stable, and its users are donating $2,285/month to support it [1]. It seems both technically and financially stable to me. Let me know if I'm missing something though. [1] https://www.patreon.com/infosecexchange https://www.patreon.com/infosecexchange

wilg 3y ago

I hope chronological timeline of only people you follow is coming, presumably that would be terrible at launch since you have no followers?

denlekke 3y ago
i'd be more likely to log in again if they showed me an empty feed or let me switch between distinct feeds of "only ppl you follow" and "recommended" right now, seeing them both together makes me not wanna sign in again
- wilg 3y ago
  Just check back in like a month and it will probably be more stabilized
timbit42 3y ago
Even if they do offer that, eventually they will remove it so they can show you want they want you to see like every other commercial social media site so they can make a few more cents. Why even bother signing up?
- ahahahahah 3y ago
  Wow what an insightful comment... I mean, I guess by that reasoning someday both Facebook and Instagram will remove their chronological timeline of only people you follow, maybe some day soon. I guess I'm surprised you didn't consider them to be part of your "every other social media site" given they're like among the largest in the world.
- astrange 3y ago
  The reason TikTok is so popular is that they show you what you want to see. Being purposely annoying and showing you things you don't want is a specific issue of Facebook caused by letting too many PMs run wild, it's not actually a good business move. The other reasons for it are: - most users are not power users and don't follow a lot of people, but still want to see content - a true chronological timeline would include bad posts (an acquaintance who spams or mass-RTs annoying content) and misses good ones (important life updates from your friends 12 hours ago)

ALittleLight 3y ago

My prediction: a little buzz for a few weeks, followed by flop.

rbarnes01 3y ago

It was my understanding that Threads was scheduled to launch tomorrow. What happened?

notacoward 3y ago
AFAICT (just checked) it hasn't actually hit Android yet. Apparently iOS users got a jump on everyone else. I'm sure as soon as there's a web version my existing Facebook feed will be practically papered over with announcements.
- etra0 3y ago
  The site now links to the Threads app for Android [1] too, I just tested it and it's working fine [2]. Maybe it's a regional thing? [1] https://www.threads.net/download https://www.threads.net/download [2] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.instagram.barcelona https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.instagram....
  - notacoward 3y ago
    Having worked there, it's probably more of a gradual-rollout thing. I guess Gatekeeper hadn't added my "social hash" to the enabled range yet.
- stevenhubertron 3y ago
  I downloaded it on my Android about 90 minutes ago.
Tsiklon 3y ago
Seems to have launched at midnight U.K. time

cyberax 3y ago

Yet another crapp instead of a normal webapp. Why the heck companies keep pushing them?

codsane 3y ago
Ads, tracking, and analytics. The usual, unfortunately.
wilg 3y ago
I'm sure it will have a web version at some point relatively soon. But of course you want a native app for a Twitter clone, most people use it on their phone!
emodendroket 3y ago
I think users somewhat prefer the app experience.
mezeek 3y ago
They make much more money with apps, and non-technical people prefer finding an app to entering a URL (because they also don't know about bookmarks).
Barrin92 3y ago
Smartphones are now the primary computing device for 70-90% of people depending on what demographics you look at. Smartphones shipped last year 1.2 billion, desktops 70 million. That's about the long and short of it.
- fabrice_d 3y ago
  286 millions PC shipments in 2022 according to https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2023-01-11-gartner-says-worldwide-pc-shipments-declined-28-percent-in-fourth-quarter-of-2022-and-16-percent-for-the-year https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2023-01-1...
poomer 3y ago
Having worked in analytics at various tech companies including Fb, the reason is almost always just that app users have way higher usage rates and ad clickthrough rates. Of course if you know basic stats you will realize this is spurious correlation (social media addicts prefer apps, using an app doesn't make one a social media addict), but somehow management never cares.

square_usual 3y ago

No web UI, it looks like. threads.net only has a QR code.

charcircuit 3y ago
https://www.threads.net/@zuck https://www.threads.net/@zuck

karlshea 3y ago

It would be super annoying if it ends up co-opting the word "thread" in general.

bob-09 3y ago
The way people already use the word "thread" to describe an online conversation is exactly why they picked the name.
- Dalewyn 3y ago
  I'll give Zuck that it also rolls off the tongue really well compared to, say, Mastodon or really anything so far from the federated multiverse. Rethread (retweet), thread (twitter) feed, etc. Having a catchy name is among the most important steps to success.
  - karlshea 3y ago
    Yeah "toot" is not great and "post" isn't specific enough.

NikolaNovak 3y ago

>>Threads is available on iOS and Android I hate that computer has become a second tier citizen. My phone is a great little computing device, but my computer is an even better, large, comfortable, multitasking, ergonomic computing device.

fullshark 3y ago
Especially for writing text
api 3y ago
Your phone offers the best opportunity to collect surveillance data, especially since you take it everywhere and provide a constant feed of your location. That’s why even things with web or desktop UIs will try to goad you into installing the mobile app. Look at the list of collected data for Threads in the iOS App Store. It’s basically “everything conceivable as much as possible.”
- wilg 3y ago
  It doesn't ask for your location
- astrange 3y ago
  Phones are good at hiding your personal info from apps and your personal info is basically not valuable anyway. This is a conspiracy theory because the idea your data is worth something makes people feel good about themselves.
  - api 3y ago
    Isn’t targeted advertising how social media makes money? Your data isn’t valuable because your life is special and interesting. It’s valuable because it helps micro-target ads at you.
    - astrange 3y ago
      When Facebook ads are good, it's because people are paying to show the ad specifically to you. (Like when you put something in your cart on a web store, don't check out, and then ads follow you around everywhere telling you to go finish buying the thing.) That's not really demographics-based though, it's explicitly tracking you as a person. Otherwise I'm not impressed. I don't try and hide myself from Facebook/Twitter much, but the first keeps trying to sell me Viagra and shirts for fat guys and the second thinks I'm every kind of doctor at the same time.

elashri 3y ago

I hope that they will keep what they promise here (1) that this will be a text experience and don't feel the urgent need to add reels/videos. [1] https://www.threads.net/t/CuVY5CAvfTS/?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ== https://www.threads.net/t/CuVY5CAvfTS/?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ...

fotta 3y ago
There's already videos on day 1.

maskedinvader 3y ago

My early impressions: Interface is clean and easy to use/intuitive Not seeing an ad or sponsored posts every 2nd or 3rd story is refreshing, wondering how long that lasts No web app to boot ? Wtf disappointed no web ui yet but hoping that changes and changes soon Also no other way to login apart from instagram ? That’s strange , was hoping for standalone login , hoping it’s eventually rolled out No way to change username even after linking instagram username, this is imho a dumb move, I was late to the instagram party and missed out on shorter username and now was hoping joining threads early would help me get my desired username but alas I noticed the highlighted replies feature where celebrity replies are expanded below some threads , it’s probably a good feature just feel they could have a way of turning it off, I’d rather click into a story to surface those and maximize stories per page and reduce scrolling All in all seems like a decent twitter clone, and lots of features missing but definitely a good start.

paxys 3y ago
> No way to change username even after linking instagram username, this is imho a dumb move, I was late to the instagram party and missed out on shorter username and now was hoping joining threads early would help me get my desired username but alas There is a 1:1 mapping of Instagram <-> Threads user names, so even if they let you change it in the app you wouldn't be able to get a shorter one if someone has already claimed it on Instagram.
joker_minmax 3y ago
On regular Instagram, I quit using because 20-25% of my feed was sponsored posts. (Although most of my friends only get ads every six or seven, I got ads every three or four posts.) I would imagine it won't be long before they start adding more ads.
- anonymousiam 3y ago
  Your imagination is spot on. They'll make the experience attractive until they have enough momentum to ruin it.
  - 3y ago

Vervious 3y ago

I mostly use twitter on web, for discovery and for work - Meta, please release a web app soon! They also need to let us change display names; these usernames don't tell us very much. Also, a following-only feed would be great.

EddieJLSH 3y ago

Not available in the EU

lom 3y ago

I’ve downloaded it, like the look. Impressive how many brands they already have. But the feed’s are loading slowly, I’d imagine that will be smoothed out though. I can’t figure out how to follow or find fediverse accounts..? How does this work?

paxys 3y ago
> I can’t figure out how to follow or find fediverse accounts..? How does this work? It doesn't (yet). Fediverse compatibility will launch "soon" (https://techcrunch.com/2023/07/05/adam-mosseri-says-metas-threads-app-wont-have-activitypub-support-at-launch/ https://techcrunch.com/2023/07/05/adam-mosseri-says-metas-th...).
- lom 3y ago
  Oh, surprising. Thought they would use the fediverse to get some content going.
  - wilg 3y ago
    My guess is it would be a disaster trying to launch while also shooting all the content onto Mastadon, which would probably cause some kind of DDOS. Probably a lot better to do it in a controlled manner in a couple weeks when they know what kind of load etc they're dealing with.
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emodendroket 3y ago

Probably the most hype around a me-too product in recent memory.

rvz 3y ago

Ladies and Gentlemen. This is how you do a proper launch with very fast 'adoption' and an extremely smooth transition with little downtime. Obviously executed to perfection by no-one else but Meta Platforms. The one who's stock was once predicted right here to go to $0 because of its chaotic stock price drop, and is now celebrated with potentially finding another billion users out of Threads. It made no-sense to bet against Zuck like they did when the stock went down. But this actually destroys the smaller social networks before they even had a chance to grow such as Substack Notes, Post, SPILL, T2, Mastodon, hive.social and cohost.org. They all need money to stay online and Meta has the money to sub-plant them all or buy out the largest networks. Money is power. We'll see how this goes, but there is a pattern with Meta's photocopying machine which didn't kill Snap with Stories, and didn't kill TikTok with Reels. They will co-exist but there will be no immediate Twitter 'death' anytime soon, especially this year. Just running the huge risk of getting broken up due to anti-trust and anti-competition laws by the regulators. (Unless they use ActivityPub as the argument that there is no lock-in on Threads) But as always, Instagram's (Threads) success on ActivityPub is indeed a nightmare for the Fediverse as centralization come up on top. Either way, a great move by Zuckerberg once again.

jtode 3y ago
Many instances have promised a schism from Meta, and if they do, they will be a smaller, and much more enjoyable federation. Most people are gonna want Meta, is the general concensus, and I do not disagree. I want Mastodon how it was two months ago, it was great.
nerdbert 3y ago
> We'll see how this goes, but there is a pattern with Meta's photocopying machine which didn't kill Snap with Stories, and didn't kill TikTok with Reels. They will co-exist but there will be no immediate Twitter 'death' anytime soon, especially this year. Snap and TikTok weren't busy trying to kill themselves, though.

ctvo 3y ago

I’m giving it a chance. I just need the academics, security, tech, and finance folks to migrate over. I’ll start the virtuous cycle by using it so they see a viable alternative to Twitter. I understand Meta isn’t amazing. I’m looking for Twitter from two years ago: somewhat moderated and working. They’ll give me that here.

SCUSKU 3y ago

Would like to see a way to login without having to create an instagram account. I used to have one but deleted it since I noticed it wasn't doing my mental health any good.

ErunamoJAZZ 3y ago
Similar situation here. I have been avoiding Instagram for many years, but I will not create an account for that hell right now just to sniff in Threads.

gemstones 3y ago

Looks like some anti-scraping on day 1, and really twisting the knife for Twitter: https://www.threads.net/t/CuVZfoihkcF https://www.threads.net/t/CuVZfoihkcF Text follows for those without the app, RT from Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram (original tweet from Jesse Chen): FYI for everyone, we’ve set our rate limits to “generous” bc we believe you have the right to see more than 600 posts in a day here. if you encounter a rate limit block and you’re not a scraper, please let us know. thanks!

holler 3y ago
Also @zuck roasting Twitter: > Anyone think this can become bigger than twitter!? > It'll take some time, but I think there should be a public conversations app with 1 billion+ people on it. Twitter has had the opportunity to do this but hasn't nailed it. Hopefully we will. https://www.threads.net/t/CuVZQsrJRcr https://www.threads.net/t/CuVZQsrJRcr

paxys 3y ago

Companies need to look at this launch and learn that you don't need idiotic wait lists and invite codes to generate hype for your service. The most important thing is to put it in the hands of users quickly and let them do their thing.

endisneigh 3y ago
I mean you have to have an instagram account and instagram is already in the top 20 sites, so..
Panini_Jones 3y ago
Facebook was highly exclusive when it first launched. That same company made Threads. I don't know if Facebook would have been as popular if it had not leveraged scarcity.
astrange 3y ago
You need them if your infrastructure isn't ready for a flood of users yet, but that just happens to not be true for Meta. Note they are rolling it out by country, maybe because they need per-language mod teams.

sanderjd 3y ago

I don't get it, a big part of the opportunity here is that Twitter just shot itself in the foot by forcing everyone to log in. But I go to the Threads website and there is nothing there, just a link to an app. So I open the app and there's nothing there, just a login form. How does this help?

aaomidi 3y ago
Working fine here, and they don’t have a web app. Majority of people use their phone for this, and that’s who they’re targeting.
- sanderjd 3y ago
  Yes but I can't view any posts (threads? I guess?) because I don't have an account ... just like how I can't use Twitter anymore.
  - deleted 3y ago
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spike021 3y ago

I haven't been able to post yet, it keeps failing. To be expected. Not _super_ happy that the front page is pulling from people I don't care about but kind of expected. Curious how it'll adapt once people I want to follow start producing... threads?

spike021 3y ago
Looks like gifs are the problem (for me). They render fine but on submitting, they repeatedly fail to post. Oh well.
- nerdbert 3y ago
  I think I might count that as a positive.
  - spike021 3y ago
    Could be! But I see plenty of reels being posted and arguably those are worse (to me at least).

vasili111 3y ago

I wonder how many new users will get Instagram since Threads require Instagram account. I for example, did not had Instagram account before.

sanderjd 3y ago
There have already been about ten links on this page that essentially do nothing for me because I don't have an Instagram account. Not sure how this is supposed to replace the use of Twitter for people who want as much reach as possible for their posts.

endisneigh 3y ago

I find it hilarious how people just move from one billionaire platform to another. Humans, man…

wilsonnb3 3y ago
I don’t care if the service is run by a billionaire or a 22 year old funded by billionaires or government grants, I just want to read little text snippets that people post. Twitter has gotten worse lately, blue sky isn’t open to the public, and I don’t care about federation so threads seems pretty nice to me.
- timbit42 3y ago
  Don't worry. It will go south like all the others have soon enough.

lom 3y ago

For everyone outside of the US: You can download it from apkmirror. Worked fine for me

gemstones 3y ago

Among the many lessons for Elon to come out of this - If you publicly announce that making an app is easy and could be done with a fraction of the engineers when you buy it, perhaps it’s unsurprising when a competitor decides that they should make the same app to take your revenue? After all, if it’s so easy to do, maybe it’s the next thing you should do.

comechao 3y ago

With Zuck's track record, Threads will be fun but don't expect transparency.

jampa 3y ago

Word of warning: After activating you account you cannot delete your Threads account without also deleting Instagram's. Also "deactivating" seems not to be working right now. It loads then does nothing. My experience: The algoritm is terrible for me because it higly bias you towards the language of the country you are residing and not the system language. As a Brazilian the only posts I see are from "blue checkmarks" ex-reality TV show people who think they are funny. In every thread blue ticks all over the top, in a cronological order of replies, which means famous people who put the lowest effort will show first. I don't get it, if my system language is in English why show only (Portuguese) Brazilian language? So if I travel or live abroad how would that work?

drukenemo 3y ago
Brazilian language aka Portuguese
- jampa 3y ago
  Technically yes, but not quite. I've added a prefix to clarify, but Portuguese from Portugal is very different from the Brazilian one.

praisewhitey 3y ago

Easily the worst of the twitter alternatives so far. The feed is endless garbage recommended posts with no way to turn them off. At least twitter gives me a tab of only the people I follow.

wilsonnb3 3y ago
Compared to scaling issues or having to explain federation to the general public, feed issues are a pretty easy fix so I remain optimistic.

dysoco 3y ago

Apparently, as I feared it might happen, it's linked to your Instagram account. I've seen notifications in Instagram saying "Your friend X just posted for the first time in Threads" this is JUST what I did not want, to have both things linked, my Twitter is silly I don't want my family or old friends to follow me there. Conversely, semi-public figures like journalists or CS researchers might not want people to follow them on Threads so that people don't immediately find their Instagram account (I believe you can still keep that private and have to manually approve followers, though).

wilsonnb3 3y ago
Can’t you just make a second account if you want to keep your instagram and threads separate? I don’t think it requires a real identity like Facebook does.
paxys 3y ago
You can create as many Instagram accounts as you want. The app even supports logging in to multiple ones at the same time.
gochi 3y ago
Multiple accounts solves the problem easily and is why Meta created the account control center or whatever they call it. Even in the instagram account they literally encourage multiple accounts with prompts like “explore a new interest with a new account”. The criticism that I would have here is that Threads lacks this multi account UX, so you would have to log out and in again until they add that.
hi5eyes 3y ago
most people have a finsta at this point

mattkevan 3y ago

Shouldn’t the fact it’s not available in the EU and that the app tracking and permission settings seem to basically be ‘everything’ raise a few red flags? Also the fact it’s from Meta, those well known and highly trusted advocates for user privacy.

nharada 3y ago

Will be interesting to see what content ends up here. Will Threads have novel content or will it just be reposts from Twitter (similar to how TikToks end up on Reels)?

DueDilligence 3y ago

[dead]

freewizard 3y ago

First impression so far: - Migrating profile and social graph from Instagram is frictionless. - Federation is not enabled, and my guess is it’s disabled last minute, bc when you type <at>id<at>server, the first <at> is deleted in your post completely. - The visibility control is different from most ActivityPub implementations like Mastodon and etc, but more like Twitter’s . Kinda makes sense from business perspective, but will be tricky to see how this works across federated ActivityPub servers.

yodon 3y ago

Search only returns usernames not content? Total fail.

jkmcf 3y ago

243M iOS app. For what's essentially a list of text. Meta should have enough resources to hire a couple iOS and Android devs to make a native experience. The hard parts are all on the backend.

astrange 3y ago

The front page has decided to show me some of the most annoying celebs I can imagine. I do not need to see any kids Minecraft Youtubers. I'm also kind of surprised they added quote RTs. That's a pretty combative feature.

ChrisArchitect 3y ago

Works fine but quickly get the feeling of like "meh". Bunch of text, whoop. Links work in posts (big for Instagram!)...... but no hashtags? Killing any sort of 'network spread' which is a big deal for conversations greater than just your follows. Something that holds back fediverse and keeps people on twitter is network effects (pros and cons when it comes to promotion of course) Tried a video post and it removed sound/doesn't play properly.....kinks. Kinda wish it would show all my instagram posts automatically in my feed but I guess that's asking alot. The duplication is just a chore tho if that's what everyone ends up doing. Anyways, it's something. The hint in the opening launch screens about the fediverse is definitely interesting (because we know everyone on the other side of that is fuming/blocking). This is a big play. And despite it not being exactly what the mastodon/fediverse heads wanted, it seems like a move in that direction even if it is a big whale jumping in the water with a centralized server vibe. What's big about this to me and why I'm even paying any attention to it at launch is the fact that it will immediately have millions of accounts ready to go because of the instagram porting. That's big right out of the gate. None of that mastodont 'what server do I choose', new address account creation, no name squatting etc to worry about. It's go time. Big play outta Meta which I'm curious how fast it all came together when it's not really that much to it. Let's build a twitter clone and use all the IG accounts. Done.