The ultimate guide to Threads by Instagram
Meet Instagram’s version of Twitter. What is Threads and how does it work?
What is Threads?
Meet Instagram’s version of Twitter: Threads is a new app for sharing text updates. It’s positioned as Meta’s alternative to Twitter for public conversations.
Mark Zuckerberg announced the app on July 6 as it went live in the US and 100 other countries for iOS and Android.
Threads borrows some of the UX look and feel from Instagram, but with a focus on sharing text over images. It’s all about conversations.
The app allows you to post up to 500 characters, and include links, photos, and videos up to 5 minutes in length.
How does it work?
Joining Threads is easy, you can download the app and use your Instagram account as your login. Everything from your selected Instagram account will carry over — your username, bio, followers, even blocked accounts. The process is quite seamless! Well done to the Meta developers.
Once you’ve followed the prompts and tweaked your bio, start exploring the app and try posting your first thread.
There a 4 main sections of the app:
The Home Feed
Search
Post
Notifications
Profile & Settings
Profile and Home Feed
The home feed is powered by Meta’s AI that figures out what content to serve you. It’s strikes a good balance between posts from your existing followers (imported from Instagram), and also trending content from people that you don’t follow.
This allows you to discover conversations outside your circle of followers. When you engage a conversation, it may then be served to your followers to also participate, similar to LinkedIn and other platforms — there’s an element of organic reach and replication.
Posting Thread and viewing a video carousel
Posting, Reposting and Quoting
You can post a Thread, or you can repost another persons thread and add your own ‘quote’ (Thread) on top.
I’ve already noticed multiple levels of reposting other people’s reposts within the app.
You can also comment and like other people’s Threads just like on Instagram. Notifications appear neatly in the Notifications tab.
Reposting a Thread and Search
Other things to know:
Threads is different to other social platforms in a couple of ways:
There are no #hashtags
There is no private direct messaging
There is no chronological timeline
You can post photos or videos and even carousels
You can choose to hide the like count on your threads
If your account is set to PUBLIC then everything is visible on the web: example
Oh, and you can also embed Threads! See below:
Overall, the app (Version 1 at least) seems to be an instant hit with users. At the time of writing, Threads hit over 10 million users in its first 7 hours.
The app is refreshing. It boasts a clean design, feeling much less cluttered than Facebook or Twitter, and it runs very smoothly and quickly. Scrolling through photos and videos feels fast and intuitive.
Well done to the Meta team, and watch this space!
How will you use Threads to grow your small business? Join the discussion
Written by Lachlan Nicolson
Founder LeaderWeb & LeaderGuide
