New social media app, Threads, is off to a quick rise. It'll likely cross 100 million users by the end of today, just 3 days after launch. If the pace continues, it will surpass the user count of Twitter, around 250 million, in the next week or so. I'm in the top 3.7 million users who joined, which is saying, well not much really. But I have some first impressions.
Also, I want a Threads logo sticker for my laptop; just sayin’.
General points
Threads is a new text-based social media app releasing in the year 2023. This is kind of weird when you think about it from a broad view.
First, social media isn’t new. It’s been around since before Facebook, which itself will reach 20 years old early next year. Yet here is a new social media app. It begs the question, why? How is this needed?
Two, it’s from Facebook, I mean Meta, which already has, um, what’s it called? Oh yeah, Facebook! It also has Instagram. In fact, Threads is an app and service from, or based on, Instagram and has good ties to it. So again, how is Threads needed?
Three, it’s simply text-based. Just…text! I mean, totally microblogging, right? People have been posting text posts to the web since last millennium — like Blogger in 1999. Yet here we are in 2023 with another new texting status-updating social media site.
The basic explanation to these points is, of course, the elephant in the room. No, not Mastodon. It’s Twitter. Threads is a direct response to the erosion of Twitter. Such alternatives abound, but Threads is extremely likely “The One” to rule them all — even if it never federates with decentralized social media.
Technical bits
That said, Threads has publicly planned to federate via the ActivityPub protocol. And that’s super interesting; it remains to be seen how a juggernaut of social media will interconnect with Mastodon, Bluesky, and several other current and yet-to-be social sites. In other words, how will Threads weave itself throughout the web?
I’ve already enjoyed first-hand experience with such federation. The fact that it works is sometimes mind-boggling because social networking is generally expected to stay contained within a specific service. But it truly works. And given the fact the world is moving beyond web 2.0 and social media as it was conceived 20+ years ago, I think federated social media is the big change that needs to happen.
How can people from anywhere across the globe truly connect and interact unless they’re free to do so through any online service? It’s ironic given its age, but social media should work like old-school email. You should be able to join your preferred service and still be able to communicate with anyone on their preferred service.
The app itself works well. I noticed some minor day one glitches, but since then it’s been perfectly smooth. The feature set is very small and simple, which is a great way to start. Most everyone knows how the basics of social works; it’s no different here. You follow people, you like others’ threads (posts), reply, repost, or quote-post them, and you post your own. Mostly, you post text. But you can also post images, videos, and links.
There’s only one feed as of now. It’s algorithm based and includes posts from people you follow but also from those you don’t. To start, this is good because it helps with discovering new people to follow. But a top feature request, one that’s slated by Threads developers, is a following feed where you only see posts from those you follow, preferably in reverse-chrono. Other features are likely to appear in the coming months, such as character-countdown (500 is max), lists, and maybe hashtags and content search.
Social posts
So what is using Threads like? What’s the vibe? As expected, everything is new, shiny, and fresh; it's a clean start. So naturally, people are excited, happy to be socializing with both new and old familiar faces, and poking around the new space.
Though there are already high-profile orgs, brands, celebs, creators, and influencers, there are many “normal” people too, just having “normal” conversation, you know, like trivial stuff. Nothing seems too serious yet; it’s mostly fun. Also, so far, there are no bots.
The people and feel of Threads is that it’s already mostly mainstream, which is what I mean by “normal” conversation. Sure, much of it is about Threads itself and about Twitter. But otherwise, what’s remarkable is that it’s more pop-culture-like, similar to Instagram I guess, and is definitely not the typical early-adopter crowd defined by nerds, geeks, and tech-heads (like Google+ was).
Threads already feels like a place where you can have a casual conversation with anyone about anything. Yet, so far, I haven't seen deep discussion or even that much long conversation. Most posts and replies are short and simple; the party is still starting up.
One apt description I saw likened Threads less to a "public town square" and more to a "mega-mall" despite the lack of any ads — that's right, there are no ads yet on the free service.
How long the optimism lasts is anyone’s guess. And without being cynical, how long before Threads convos devolve into more Twitter-like vitriol remains to be seen. The Threads team, so far, is determined to avoid such fate.
Final thoughts
As far as text-based social media goes, Threads is promising to be the best there ever was. That’s my sense of its potential. It follows since Meta has the technical expertise and years of experience to make things work well. And with federation forthcoming, it really should become great.
That said, there are thoughts and feelings of social media burnout. Does the world really need or want a new social media thing after years of Facebook and Twitter in decline? Fair question and concern. But people will always want to connect. We still have email and messaging services. We still have blogging! So why not microblogging? Has text-based connection been perfected online? Nope, not yet. Can't we do better than before? Seems like it's worth a try.