Instagram’s Twitter competitor Threads now available on Apple's App Store and Android's Play Store in India

Threads, the highly anticipated social media platform developed by Meta, has finally been unveiled after months of speculation and leaks. Users can now access the platform either through its desktop site at Threads.net or by downloading the dedicated app on iOS and Android devices. In case you encounter any issues with the iOS version or encounter an error, try force quitting the App Store and relaunching it.

Threads offers users the ability to create text-based posts with a maximum limit of 500 characters, as well as share photos and videos of up to five minutes in length. The app bears a striking resemblance to Twitter in terms of its user interface, featuring a clean and minimal design with familiar options such as liking, commenting, reposting, and sharing threads. As Threads is closely integrated with Instagram, users can conveniently log in using their Instagram usernames and effortlessly follow the same set of individuals they already engage with on that platform.

The primary feed on Threads presents a combination of recommended content and posts from users you follow, similar to the approach taken by Instagram. Unlike Twitter, however, there doesn't appear to be an option to switch between streams of recommended and following-only content. Nevertheless, this is a feature that Meta may consider implementing in the future.

To enhance user privacy, Meta has extended some of Instagram's privacy controls to Threads. For instance, users can employ filters to block out specific words in replies. Additionally, they can limit who can respond to their threads, choosing between everyone on the platform, only the users they follow, or solely those who have been mentioned in the original post.

Notably, Threads does not support ActivityPub, the decentralized social networking protocol utilized by platforms like Mastodon, at its initial launch. ActivityPub enables users to transfer their information from one host to another, among other functionalities. Although this capability is currently absent in Threads, Meta may explore its inclusion in future updates.

Meanwhile, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg surprised netizens by logging into his not-so-frequently utilised Twitter account to share a lighthearted Spider-Man meme on the day Instagram unveiled Threads, an application aimed at emulating Twitter's functionality.

The release of Threads coincides with Twitter's recent imposition of stricter limitations on users. Twitter has introduced a temporary rate limit that restricts unverified users from viewing more than 600 posts per day (or 300 posts for new unverified accounts). In addition, Twitter initially blocked logged-out users from accessing tweets on the platform, though it later reversed this change. Furthermore, Twitter has introduced a new version of TweetDeck that necessitates a verified subscription.

Meta has launched Threads in over 100 countries, including India. However, it is important to note that the platform will not be initially available in the European Union, with plans for expansion into the region potentially in the works.

"The current state of mayhem at Twitter presents a great opportunity for Meta to offer an alternative to users. But Meta's abysmal privacy record is bound to raise concerns. Threads is perfectly capable of acquiring a large user base considering it's based on Instagram which boasts of over 2 billion users," Mishi Choudhary, Technology Lawyer and Online Civil Rights Activist said.

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