Mark Zuckerberg's Meta is set to launch Instagram Threads, a Twitter rival, on July 6 according to a listing on Apple's app store.
The app allows users to follow individuals they are already following on Instagram, and it shares similarities with Twitter by prioritizing public interactions.
Some tech enthusiasts have dubbed the upcoming program as a "Twitter killer."
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With a user base of over 3 billion across Instagram, Facebook and Meta's other apps, Meta is the biggest competitor to Twitter.
Zuckerberg has earlier drawn inspiration for several new products and features from rivals and newcomers. Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp stories have been inspired from Snapchat's disappearing photos and videos. Meta also introduced geofilters and face filters to its stories, that was very similar to Snapchat lenses. As Facebook and Instagram stories picked up and gained traction among 250 million users in June 2017, Snapchat only had 166 million daily users on its platform.
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Instagram stated at the start of 2017 that it would permit marketers to insert a brief photo or video advertising between user postings on its Stories. It resembles one of the ad products that Snapchat offers.
Zuckerberg's imitation of features of other competitors has not been successful always. In 2022, Meta had to shut down Bulletin, a possible Substack rival that assisted authors in starting subscription newsletters.
Some of Zuckerberg's products inspired by rivals have proven to be vastly successful. One of them is Instagram Reels, which is a clone of TikTok. He said users spent 24 percent more time on the platform after they introduced Reels, a feature that shows users short-form videos.
Threads, the newest addition to Meta's portfolio, will have features similar to those of Twitter. The users can like, comment and share posts, as understood from the screenshots on the app listing in App Store.
The description on the App Store says, “Threads is where communities come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today, to what’ll be trending tomorrow.”
People will be able to continue using their current user name and follow the Instagram profiles they already follow.
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