How Instagram's Twitter clone 'Threads' could win

Meta is set to launch Threads and there's a ton of discourse around if it can truly compete with Twitter. In this video, I discuss the demographic they’d have to win over.

As you may have seen, Meta is set to launch Threads tomorrow (Thursday, July 6th), a stand-alone app that is a Twitter competitor.

Meta’s Chief Product Officer told employees, “We’ve been hearing from creators and public figures who are interested in having a platform that is sanely run”.

Monday night Elon replied to a tweet that showed all the data Threads would be collecting from users by saying “Thank goodness they’re so sanely run.”

Zuckerberg downplayed it last month on Lex Fridman’s podcast:

[Clip of Zuckerberg getting dismissive about Threads launch]

But I mean again, this is a new app. It’s a Twitter competitor. Regardless of the commitment of the Meta team, culturally it’s a fascinating project.

We’ve gotten a few sneak peeks of the interface:

• I didn’t like the name at first because the word “Thread” was hijacked by one of the most annoying corners of Twitter the past two years, but when I really think about it, it’s not awful and I like the graphics because I think it represents the nature of such a platform well — a web of information. Though, I’m still not about the “s” at the end

• I don’t enjoy the reply and like count design emphasis (little harsh on the eyes)

• And I don’t like the order of engagement options — I think it should just mirror Twitter: reply, retweet, like, share. But I guess it makes sense that it would mirror Instagram

• Otherwise, it’s clean and simple which I enjoy

Now getting into the real meat here… I have some other thoughts about the competition that aren’t related to people’s animosity toward Elon. Though of course, he plays a large role in Twitter’s trajectory.

First, I’ll state the bias that Twitter has been my favorite social media platform by far since middle school. And for years, I’ve said that I believe it could easily win the long game with social media.

But today I’m stepping into some uncomfortable shoes as someone who has been vocally frustrated by Meta over recent years, specifically in regards to Instagram. As I’ll be discussing their unique opportunity with this new project.