Thoughts on Meta’s, Instagram’s new Threads app

Is it a new fad or will it make it?

As you do, when you’re an early tech adopter, you download the next new app right away. Which is what happened when I saw the email letting me know Threads was now available on the Apple App Store.

In case you missed it,

Threads is the new ‘Twitter’ like app created by Meta/Instagram. It has been available for download on app stores since July 5th.

According to Zuck’s Threads, the app now has over 30 million downloads, that’s 30+ million users in about 15 hours.

Here are my first impressions on the app:

You need an Instagram account to create a Threads account. The only way at present is to sign up using your Instagram account. Which basically means two things:

• No Instagram account, no Threads account
• No, you can’t have a different username for your Threads account

It’s a clean interface and quite pleasant actually. Reminds me very much of the early days of Facebook/Twitter. The vibe is quite the same. Lots of random, friendly conversations.

You can only search users. There aren’t any other search functionalities on the app yet, but i’m sure the early experience will change at some point.

Once signed up, you can follow all your Instagram follows on the app, and they can do the same.

A number also shows up on your Instagram profile, so people can click on it and go right to your Threads feed. Personally, the option of having just the username would make more sense, but these numbers are based on what user number you are to sign up to the app.

You have the option to hide this number on your Instagram profile, but you’re warned, that if you do, you can’t add it back. Keep it on your profile if you want people to click through…