How to Use Meta’s Threads to Connect with Your Friends and Family

A new app that is positioned as a Twitter competitor has been released.

The launch of Threads coincides with Elon Musk’s announcement that there will be limits on the number of tweets you can read each day on Twitter, even though the platform has apparently been in development since January.

The Facebook and Instagram owners Meta launched Threads in the UK.

Although it is connected to Instagram, users can submit up to 500 characters of text, five minutes of video, links, and images.

Mark Zuckerberg said in a post on the app that the app had received two million sign-ups in just two hours.

Some social media users might be looking for an alternative, similar to Mastodon or Bluesky, in the midst of all the changes at Twitter. With Threads, you can have live conversations while also having the option to upload text, videos, and photographs. Continue reading to discover more about how to sign up and the benefits offered.

What is Meta’s Threads?

Threads is a platform that lets you upload up to 500 character updates or brief posts that were developed by Meta’s Instagram team. Links, images, and movies up to five minutes in length are permitted. Your Instagram account is connected to the app, and according to Meta, you can “easily share a Threads post to your Instagram story, or share your post as a link on any other platform you choose.”

Posts from users and accounts you follow on Instagram or Threads will appear in your feed along with suggestions for fresh material. Additionally, you can limit who is permitted to mention you and filter certain terms from your feed.

How to download Threads by Meta

You can download Threads for free from the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store.

How to Use Threads

Here’s how to use Threads:

To use Threads, you must have an Instagram account since you must sign in with your Instagram login details.

1. Download the Threads app from the App Store or Google Play.
2. Sign in with your Instagram account.
3. Choose the people you want to follow on Threads.
4. Start sending messages, sharing photos and videos, and seeing what your friends are up to.

Instead of starting from scratch on Threads, you can quickly follow the same profiles you already follow on Instagram with a few clicks and transfer your following. You can choose whether the entire world or only your followers can see a post, or “Thread,” when you create it.

Users of Twitter and Instagram may be pleased to learn that you can unfollow, report, block, or restrict a profile when it comes to features. Anyone you’ve blocked on Instagram will also be blocked on Threads when you access it through the three-dot menu. Support for screen readers and AI-generated visual descriptions are additional features.

WordPress and Mastodon are just a couple of the apps that support the ActivityPub protocol, according to Meta, which is trying to make Threads compatible and integrable with them. The business eventually hopes that all users of compatible apps will be able to access Threads posts, regardless of whether they have a Threads account.

• Can Meta’s Threads Challenge Twitter?

The two tech behemoths’ rivalry extends beyond the rumoured cage bout between Musk and Zuckerberg. It can be considerably simpler to get users quickly because to Threads’ built-in connectivity to Instagram. Although Musk increased Twitter’s daily post limit to 10,000 for verified users, 1,000 for unverified users, and 500 for new unverified users, the adjustment may drive away users and advertisers.

The new Threads platform does, however, also have its critics. According to Forrester analyst Mike Proulx, Meta has attempted to launch and shut down Threads in the past, and it is now capitalising on the current wave of Twitter discontent.

“While credit should be given to Meta’s steadfast test and learn strategy, the company doesn’t exactly have a successful track record launching standalone apps outside its core family,” Proulx said in a statement to CNET, citing applications like Slingshot and IGTV.

Proulx continued by stating that there are other Twitter rivals on the market, including Bluesky, Mastodon, and Hive. According to him, “This only serves to splinter the Twitter alternative-seeking user base.”

Matt Navarra, a social media strategist and market analyst, told the PA news agency that the app is the “first credible threat” to Twitter.

He said: “I think that Threads is the first real, credible threat to Elon Musk’s Twitter.

“Users of Twitter are desperately looking for an exit from the platform to escape, and the existing options of rivals are fairly limited.

“They all have the same big problem, which is you have to start from zero – it’s a network that is completely new.

“One of the biggest benefits for Meta is that it’s building off the back of Instagram, where people are familiar and can also kick-start their following because it ties into the same social graph.”