Day 1 of Threads: How companies and people reacted
What's the story
Threads—Instagram's Twitter challenger—is off to a flying start.
The app has onboarded over 10 million users within seven hours of its launch. To put that into perspective, OpenAI's ChatGPT reached the milestone in 40 days.
Threads has attracted several top companies too and has welcomed a ton of feedback from users as well.
Let's see how Thread's first day has panned out.
Timing
Meta has nailed the timing of Threads's launch
Meta has launched Threads at a time when Twitter is dealing with several issues. The Elon Musk-owned platform stopped being a favorite of advertisers a while ago.
The newly introduced rate limits are expected to push it further down the pecking order in companies' preferred social media platforms.
With Threads, Meta would aim to fill that advertising void.
Companies
Some big companies have joined Threads
Some of the world's top organizations are looking for an alternative to Twitter. Can Threads be that?
The app's first day seems to say that it can. Some of the big names that joined Threads on its first day include Adidas, Amazon, Netflix, Microsoft, and Pepsi, among others.
How do they feel about the new microblogging platform?
Reactions
Amazon and Pepsi reacted to Threads
Amazon has started life on Threads in an interesting way. "You can buy thread on Amazon," reads the company's first post on the new platform.
Amazon also shared a link to buy a spool of thread. Meanwhile, beverage giant Pepsi wanted to know whether Threads is okay.
"iS tHReaDs oKaY?" that's what Pepsi's first thread on the app looks like.
Netflix
Netflix has been very active on Threads
Streaming giant Netflix has been very active on Threads. Remember, it's only been a few hours since the app's launch.
"Waiting for my friends to join me," wrote Netflix in its first post. It also has a picture of Pablo Escobar sitting on a swing, from the Netflix show Narcos.
Adidas and Microsoft are yet to post their first thread on the platform.
Meaning
Some major names have stayed away from Threads
The above listed aren't the only companies to show interest in Threads. With organizations showing interest in Meta's app, Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino might find it hard to win back their goodwill.
Meanwhile, some big companies have stayed from Threads. Tech giants Apple and Google have shown no interest in Threads so far.
The same goes for Disney, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley.
Issues
Threads has a very cluttered feed right now
It might look like Threads's first day has been all about happy users. That's far from the reality.
For starters, the app's feed has invited a lot of criticism from users. It does not differentiate between content from people users follow and algorithm-generated content.
As a result, we have a cluttered feed with mostly things people did not ask to see.
Solution
Feed for only people users follow is 'on the list'
Meta's big bosses, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram head Adam Mosseri, have been active on Threads today.
Youtuber Marques Brownlee and photographer Noah Kalina raised the issue about a separate feed to see only people they follow on Threads.
To this, Mosseri responded, "on the list." Zuckerberg posted a thumbs up emoji in response to Brownlee.
Hashtag
Threads do not support hashtags
Although Threads is a clone of Twitter, it lacks some of the features that made Twitter what it is today. Primary among them is the lack of support for hashtags.
Hashtags are important to group together conversations around a certain topic or trend, making it easy for people to find their interests.
A lack of hashtags means no trending topics as well.
Creators
People are posting same content on Instagram and Threads
Instagram might introduce hashtags on Threads soon. After all, Instagram thrives on hashtags.
However, that won't stop the problem of content replication. Most Instagram influencers and creators are used to posting videos and photos.
Not all of them are interested in text-based social media or microblogging. This has resulted in people posting the same content on Instagram and Threads.
Deletion
Deleting Threads profile will delete Instagram account
Threads is collecting a lot of your data but what has stunned users is the aftermath of deleting their Threads account.
You can log out from Threads but to delete your profile, you will have to delete your Instagram account.
"You may deactivate your Threads profile at any time, but your Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting your Instagram account," said Meta.