If you’re on social media then you would’ve seen a big update this week. Meta, the company that also brought you Facebook and Instagram, has now popped Threads into the ring. This new app is designed to cater to all those Twitter users who are not feeling the platform as much these days.

Threads, a brand-new spinoff from Instagram, was supposed to step onto the stage at 10am Eastern Time on July 6. But, in true maverick style, the app rolled out hours earlier than planned. 10 million sign ups in just 7 hours! Even Elon Musk couldn't resist chiming in with his take and may attempt to sue Meta:

“Meta deliberately assigned [past Twitter] 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,”

“Competition is fine, cheating is not,” Musk tweeted on Thursday.

The reason for Threads' arrival? Well, Twitter has seen better days, to be honest. Ever since Musk took over, the platform has been a bit unstable, with regular changes driving users and advertisers away. Several companies have tried to create their own alternatives to cater to this exodus. Now, it's Meta's turn to step up and try to trump the competition.

So what is Threads?

In a nutshell, Threads is essentially Twitter minus the little bird logo. The app is called "Threads, an Instagram app," signalling a close relationship with Instagram.

Threads is pitched as a text-based conversation app where communities can come together and discuss everything under the sun. To make things easier, you can only log in with your Instagram account, bring your Instagram bio and links over, and follow the same crowd you hang out with on Instagram. In the same way Facebook is connected to Messenger, so is Threads to Instagram. While you can deactivate your Threads account, once you’ve linked your Instagram you can’t delete it without deleting the two apps.

Threads offers public profiles for those who want to share their content with everyone, or private profiles for a more selective audience. The app also allows you to start new threads (think tweets, but threaded), like, reply, and repost content. The goal of Threads is to let users build their own dedicated following and share their ideas and creativity with the world.

Don't mix up Threads with the other app called @threads that's more of a Twitter-for-work platform. That app is now hustling to update its branding and disassociate itself from Threads by Meta.

How is Threads different?

The key difference with Threads is its text-centric approach. Each post can be up to 500 characters long, but you can also group several of them together into a thread. As with Twitter, you have the freedom to decide who can reply to your posts. Once a post is live, you can't edit it, but the safety features you're used to on Instagram also apply on Threads.

Threads offers a single feed mixed with suggested content and posts from the accounts you follow. Its search function currently only supports user searches, not post searches. But keep in mind, this is just the "first version" of Threads, and Meta plans to enhance these features over time.

What about advertising?

Threads isn't running ads yet, and Meta has no plans to monetise it within the year. That said, it's still gathering data from users, after all, selling information for targeted advertising is Meta's main gig. Looking through the feed last night there were some notable early adopters and strategies. The 3 main approaches in the last 24 hours for engaging audiences I have seen are…

In addition to this many Australian brands have jumped on the bandwagon. Here’s my roundup from what I saw in Day 1…

BRANDS

• Four Pillars Gin

• Frank Body

• Mario Badescu

• Culture Kings

• Netflix

• Booktopia

• Sony Australia

• Vegemite Australia

• From The Memo

• MCo Beauty

• VRG Girl

• Petstock

• Up and Go

SPORT

• The AFL live ‘Threaded’ the Richmond vs Sydney match.

• Brisbane Lions, GWS, Richmond and Collingwood started their accounts.

POLITICS / GOVERNMENT

• Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had a go and chatted to Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews

• City of Melbourne

NEWS

• The Guardian Australia

• MamaMia

• The Daily Aus

• Betoota Advocate

• Vogue Australia

Some users on Twitter, including its founder Jack Dorsey, have highlighted the Threads privacy label from the App Store. This label outlines the wide range of data the app will collect to build a detailed profile of each user - from location and purchase data to posted photos and even phone numbers. So while Threads may be a new, exciting space for online conversation, remember to stay mindful of your digital footprint.

Are you ready to dive into this new platform and start threading? We're here to help you make the most of it. Drop us a line and let's chat about how we can shape your unique approach and strategy for Threads.