If you’re a little late to the party, don't worry, we’ve got your back. Here's the lowdown on Threads - the new kid on the block.

So, what exactly is this new social media app called “Threads”?

Threads is essentially Meta’s answer to Twitter or some might say it’s just Zuckerberg taunting Musk…

Either way, this new platform is making waves. Within months of announcing their plans, they successfully launched Threads on 5th July 2023 and received over 70 million users within the first 48 hours (as of 4pm on 7th July 2023, when this article was written).

This new text-based app is closely connected with Instagram, so if you’ve already got an Instagram account you can be up and running on Threads within minutes and follow all the same accounts, well, if you want to follow the same accounts that is. But if you do, you’re also given the option to proactively follow accounts before they’re even on the platform. So as soon as they join, you’ll automatically be added to their list of followers. No stress. The whole process is so smooth and effortless, it will save you HOURS.

The tech of Threads…

There’s a lot of great potential with Threads as it aims to leverage ActivityPub, which is an open source, decentralised social networking protocol based on ActivityStreams. It provides a client to server API for creating, updating and deleting content, as well as a federated server to server API for delivering notifications and content. 

But what does this mean for you?

It means good news. By using the ActivityPub protocol, Threads will be interoperable with other ActivityPub platforms, connecting everything to a single social graph and content-sharing system – so you’ll be able to carry your audience across those platforms, also known as the Fediverse, a portmanteau of Federation and Universe. 

Did you know ActivityPub can be integrated with your WordPress site via a plugin? If you're interested, you can check out a full list of Fediverse apps over at Codeberg and GitHub.

But how does Threads work?

Similar to rival apps Twitter and Mastodon, you can post, repost, reply, and quote. Your posts can be up to 500 characters long (which is more than the 280 character limit on Twitter, unless you’re a Twitter Blue account), and can include photos, videos up to 5 minutes long, and web links. 

If Threads is the same as Mastodon and Twitter, what’s the point?

Mastodon is great, but the ability to draw your audiences from Instagram so effortlessly is a massive bonus that we’re sure is going to make Threads thrive.

Compared to Twitter, it’s new, easy, intuitive to use and doesn’t impose the same restrictions. There’s no limitation of tweets, adverts, paid verification status or any of those awful little gremlin trolls. Fingers crossed it stays that way.

If you’ve got a large audience on Twitter, we’re not saying you should ditch and run because Threads is still a baby, it's got a long way to go. But technology moves fast and early adopters usually have the biggest success. And we’ll just say one more word on this, MySpace.

If that didn’t make sense, MySpace lost the race to Facebook in 2009 thanks to a host of reasons including a lack of innovation, over-saturation of advertising and slow loading times. Basically, they didn’t listen to their users and didn’t keep up with technology.

So why not give it a go, and if you do, come say hello and let us know if you think Zuckerberg's on to a winning round...

Getting started with the new social media app, Threads

If you're on desktop, head to threads.net and scan the QR code in the lower right corner. And if you're on mobile, click on the relevant link below.

Download Threads for IOS from the Apple App Store
Download Threads for Android from the Google Play Store

Find us on threads @weirdwolfagency

See you over there!