My early impressions of Threads app by Meta
It’s finally here! Threads by Meta which seems to be the direct competitor to Twitter is now available for download on iOS and Android is here and I have installed it on my phone to give it a try.
Here are my early impressions of the app.
The signup process
The signup process was pretty much straightforward if you’re already using Instagram or Facebook. You just need to select your existing Instagram account from the sign-up screen, fill in your bio and other details, and you’re in!
The interface
The overall interface is hauntingly similar to Twitter’s and I think it’s a good thing since the people who are in dire need to switch will find it easy to adapt to its interface.
The timeline looks pretty much like Twitter’s timeline. You can see the posts from the people you follow and you can also see the posts from the people you don’t follow but are in your network. You get the ability to like, comment, and share the posts as well. Common stuff.
I also like the fact that there are haptics on certain actions such as when you like a post. It feels very satisfying.
The timeline also feels very tidy and clean.
The one thing you don’t get right now is the ability to change the order of the posts. i.e. Chronological or Algorithmic. I think this is something that will be added in the future.
And oh! censorship of sensitive content (like pornography) is also in place unlike Twi.. you get the point.
The profile
The profile page is also very similar to Twitter’s. You can see the number of followers but you can’t see the number of people you’re following.
The tab where you can see the posts you’ve liked is also missing. Early days!
The links added in the bio text are not clickable. It’s little things like these but I presume all these will be in their roadmap. Cause they want to dethrone the bird app, right?
What’s missing?
There are a lot of things, I can think of, that are missing from the app at the moment that would truly make Threads a worthy alternative to Twitter.
- The web version
- Direct Messages
- Support for hashtags
- Ability to save images
- Bookmarks
- Polls
- Lists
- Ability to change the order of the posts
- Posts and Profile analytics
- Ability to pin posts on the profile
Is there anything else? Let me know in the comments.
In closing
It’s still the initial days for Threads but in my opinion, it has the potential to make people switch to it (now that Twitter’s current state is sort of in limbo). It’s a very well thought out app and I’m sure it will get better with time.
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