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Threads: Meta's New App Aims to Shake Up the Social Media Landscape

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Threads: Meta's New App Aims to Shake Up the Social Media Landscape

Interest in Threads may already be declining after just a week of the app’s peak usage on July 7th. The average time spent on the app each day has fallen from 21 minutes to six minutes among U.S. users. 

Time spent on Twitter also took a slight knock over this period, yet the total, at 25 minutes, was still far above Meta’s competing app.

Meta launched its Twitter competitor, built on Meta’s existing Instagram platform, to a massive reception on July 5. Just five days after release, Zuckerberg claimed that the new social media service had over 100 million users.

Threads is a text-based app that allows users to share updates, photos, and videos with their close friends and followers. The app is designed to be a more intimate and personal experience than Twitter, and it features a number of features that are specifically designed for small groups. 

For example, Threads allows users to create "Close Friends" lists, which are private groups of people who can see all of their posts. Users can also send direct messages to their Close Friends, and they can even share their location with them. Threads also includes a number of features that are designed to make it easier for users to stay connected, such as a "Together" feature that shows users when their Close Friends are online.

The launch of Threads was seen as a direct challenge to Twitter. Meta has been struggling to grow its user base in recent years, and it is hoping that Threads will help to attract new users who are looking for a more personal and intimate social media experience.

It is still too early to say whether Threads will be a success, but it has certainly made a splash in the social media world. The app has been praised for its focus on privacy and intimacy, and it could potentially become a popular alternative to Twitter.

Here are some of the key features of Threads:

  • Close Friends: Users can create private groups of people who can see all of their posts.
  • Direct Messages: Users can send direct messages to their Close Friends.
  • Location Sharing: Users can share their location with their Close Friends.
  • Together: This feature shows users when their Close Friends are online.
  • Threads Posts: These are short posts that are limited to 500 characters.
  • Threads Photos and Videos: Users can share photos and videos up to five minutes long.
  • Threads Stories: These are ephemeral posts that disappear after 24 hours.

Threads is available for download on iOS and Android.