Is Instagram’s Threads The Diet Coke Version Of Twitter?

Instagram’s new Threads app is making headlines this past week for its debut and record breaking numbers of being the fastest downloaded app of all time. With so much hype and interest in Instagram’s latest extension to the microblogging side of social media, the question has to be asked: “Is it worth all the hype?”

What Is Threads?

For those who don’t know, Threads is a microblogging social media platform owned and operated by Meta Platforms. It serves as an addition from Instagram and it allows its users to post and share text, images, and videos, as well as interact with other users’ in a similar fashion to Twitter.

To be more technically precise, Thread posts can be up to 500 characters long and include links, photos, and videos up to 5 minutes in length. With all of this in mind, the following statement is arguably the best and most concise way to describe the new platform.

“It’s Instagram, but in a Twitter format.”

Why Is Threads Blowing Up?

One of the biggest reasons why Threads is gaining such a sudden uphill traction is due to Twitter’s unpredictable and volatile future. Ever since Elon Musk bought the company, Twitter has been making headlines the past year for its hundreds of layoffs, number of concerning lawsuits, and reports of advertising losses from Twitter’s largest sponsors/accounts.

With so much imploding actions occurring on everyone’s favorite microblogging platform, Meta saw this as an opportunity to take over and released Threads to serve as a means of replacing Twitter. In fact, one of the biggest appeals of Threads is its ease of setting up, as it asks if you want to automatically follow all of your Instagram followers.

The ability to automatically port follows and followers is an effective feature that allows users to skip the annoying setup of tailoring your feed. In fact, this simple setup instantly gets its new users to automatically use the app as if they had it forever. With such a seamless transition, and the potential to become the new breeding grounds of minute-by-minute blogging, Threads became one of the most hyped platforms of the year.

Will It Last Tho?

Throughout its one week debut, there hasn’t been much action on Threads other than people giving in to the trend. After several days of exploring Threads, it feels really tame and PG at the moment. This could be due to the lack of trolls, bots, and the entertainingly unhinged blowing up people's feeds.

For those who are curious, what kind of content you get on Threads is dependent on who you follow on Instagram. So the possibility of encountering random memes and posts is going to be low unless you start following accounts that are more tailored to creating and posting entertaining/interesting content.

At the moment, Threads is in a state that is reminiscent of Twitter in its early days where nobody knows what to do and is waiting for somebody to do something interesting. So if things continue on this trend, then Threads might develop an issue of retention and their plans to replace Twitter might be in danger.

While there have been reports of Threads looking to integrate new features such as linking threads to Instagram stories, and allowing its userbase to interact with Mastadon’s userbase, it is too early to say and we just have to wait and see if anything happens.

What do you think? Is Threads the Diet Coke of Twitter or is it about to get fun and weird real soon? Comment your thoughts and if you liked what you read, be sure to follow for more related content!