Meta launches new social media app ‘Threads’ to counter Twitter

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NEW YORK: Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg is launching a new app called Threads to counter Twitter. Threads, which will be linked to Instagram, is already available for pre-order in the Apple App Store and will go live for users on Thursday.

It is a “text-based conversation app where communities come together”. The new app is the latest chapter in the rivalry between Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, who bought Twitter in October – bringing in changes that have barely left the headlines since.

The new app appears to be free, and features a similar interface to Twitter. A ‘thread,’ on social media, describes a series of inter-connected posts.

The terminology is particularly strongly associated with Twitter, where users will tend to pen a string of posts on a point in reply to their original tweet.

But a preview of the app has already appeared in iPhones app stores, as ‘Threads, an Instagram app,’ available for pre-download before its launch on Thursday, July 6. A series of promotional images suggest it uses an aesthetic similar to Instagram’s template for Twitter-style posts.