Instagram Threads Is Rolling Out In Thursday 10PM, Opens To iOS Users First
Instagram Threads Is Rolling Out In Thursday 10PM, Opens To iOS Users First
Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta is finally making the move: the company’s Twitter competitor has launched the website threads.net that currently is counting down the clock – which ends on July 6th (Thursday) 10PM Malaysian Time. 9to5Google reported that the website was set up with the countdown since 5PM PT, July 3rd (8AM, July 4th in Malaysia).
Meta’s answer to Elon Musk’s platform has gained significant attention since its inception as the internal codename called “Project 92“. Since Elon’s takeover of the platform, Twitter has went through mass layoffs, Twitter Blue verification saga, and more – the latest of which ended up throttling user’s activity on the platform due to “extreme levels of data scraping” (though some have pointed out that it’s more likely down to Twitter being behind on the data migration schedule, as it stops paying for Google Cloud’s $1 billion contract).

Many of these high-profile incidents has caused degrees of user exodus to other platforms, most prominent so far being decentralized platform Mastodon and ex-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s BlueSky (which remains invite-only at this writing). As the latest “rate-limited” incident has caused great degrees of service disruption, Meta is looking to strike the metal while it’s hot – according to the report.
In the website, there’s only a clock countdown with a dynamic wallpaper of the Threads logo (which you can drag around in 3D view). Depending on your device, you may be greeted with slightly different message based on the app’s availability. Android devices will see the message “Coming soon for Android” on the bottom, while iOS users will be given a download link where it redirects to Apple App Store. PC users meanwhile will see a QR code on the bottom right corner of the screen, which can be scanned by your device.
9to5Google has dug deeper and found some details of the app on the way it functions. For example, since Threads runs completely on top of Instagram’s infrastructure, it will provide you an option to instantly follow everyone from your existing list from your Instagram account. Both platforms will share account names, display names, and even the profile picture will be directly linked between the two (which you can only change in IG). Block settings will also be linked on both sides, meaning whoever blocked on Instagram or vice versa will be reflected in the other end accordingly.
There’s also integration with Mastodon, though it’s noted that this may be a future feature based on the app’s description. Finally, deep in the code the team has found that webapp should exist – meaning you should be able to access Threads on the web through PC. That said, Instagram has traditionally been lagging behind in PC interface until recently, so it remains to be seen if Threads may still put its focus heavily on mobile and leave PC as a bit of an afterthought.
All in all, this should be a very serious threat to Twitter. Moreover, given Meta’s past track record of copying features left and right (and mostly succeeding in doing so) – Elon Musk better watch out.
Pokdepinion: Who’s downloading the app first? (I do not own iPhones, for one)