Threads first experience: Is this "Twitter killer" easy to use?

Today, Threads, Meta’s anti-Twitter application, was launched in the App Store and Google App Store ahead of schedule. It’s a text-based conversation app built on top of Instagram, where users can migrate their Instagram accounts and social connections directly to Threads.

The friends of Foresight News discussed this “Twitter Killer” app that was swiping the screen before it went online early this morning:

Neutral and objective

**Peng SUN:**Compared to Twitter, the first impression of Threads is that it is as refreshing and simple as Instagram. It looks neat and advanced, and the Twitter screen has a stronger sense of flooding).

As for the product experience, there are some unique features and pitfalls of the Meta system:

• The account is strongly associated with Instagram. You can post Threads on ins, but you cannot change your username inside Threads. It is not friendly to users who do not usually use ins. If you want to “replace” Twitter, the ecological entrance is at least a little more open Bar.
• Like ins, the account can be set as a private account. A single post can also hide the number of likes, which can hide social relationships to a certain extent. Those who do not follow each other unilaterally or mutually cannot see the likes and comments of other users on the post. This is similar to WeChat Moments.
• Threads currently only supports mobile terminals, and does not support the web terminal. It still grabs mobile social users, so one-click external links support Twitter.
• Compared with Twitter, it is more back to the social itself, that is, the connection between people. I heard that if the ins content itself has a lot of rubbish, Threads will restrict the login. This is very good, there are fewer pornographic tweets, and the world is much quieter. *Instagram cannot browse pictures in full screen, but Threads can browse in full screen and save pictures. For friends who like to share life and love life, the content based on text and supplemented by ins-style photos will also have a special experience.

**Chloe:**As an old Instagram user, the visual experience of Threads is as good as ever. If the Web3 matrix is migrated in the future, it will continue to be used.

Slots:

• You cannot directly enter the homepage of sharing business cards by clicking on the WeChat external link;
• The recommended streaming push on the home page is not strongly related;
• The mobile phone system is configured in Chinese, and does not support viewing translation (English);
• Published pictures cannot support picture size modification, color correction and other functions.

Product experience favorability:

• The return operation is to slide the finger down the entire page, which is very cool;
• View the attention, review and praise of dynamic pages using small tags, full UI score;
• The profile on the Instagram homepage will directly display the number of users who joined Threads as your number, which gives you a sense of identity.

Kate: The overall UI style is minimalist, which is quite comfortable. Compared with Twitter, it is still too little in terms of practicality, and it is still a bit of a threshold for those who do not play ins.

advantage:

• The limit for a single thread is 500 characters, which is nearly double that of Twitter’s 280.

Unsuitable:

• You need to go to ins for personal nickname, ID modification, etc. You can find the external link to ins in the APP settings, but the H5 page experience is not good, and after trying it, it cannot be changed smoothly;
• The home page currently puts the recommendations and the ones you are following together, and the information you want to follow may not be obtained in time;
• Judging from the homepage, after tweeting, the personal ID number is displayed instead of your own nickname, which is very different from other social media;
• You can only use ins to log in. If you don’t have an ins account, you have to download and register separately, which is not small.

**Karen: **Meta claims to make Threads compatible with ActivityPub, which is an open social networking protocol established by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). This will enable Threads to achieve interoperability with other projects or applications that are compatible with the ActivityPub protocol, that is, after compatibility, other ActivityPub-based application users can follow or interact with users on Threads without a Threads account. This is still worth looking forward to. At that point, each compatible app can set its own community standards and content moderation policies, and users can then choose apps that match their values.

About user experience:

• If you are an in-depth Instagram user, the high integration between the two, especially accounts and followers, lowers the threshold for Instagram users to join, but there is no way for non-Instagram users to enter;
• About the personalized recommendation algorithm of the exploration page, because I don’t pay much attention to other users on Instagram, and the content displayed on the homepage can’t see the relevance;
• There is no way to view content in reverse chronological order on Threads, which I personally think is quite important.
• As a social project, there are not many basic functions. For example, there is no web version, no keyword search, no hashtags, no topics, no private messages, bookmarks or collection functions. It is not attractive to me, and I should also use it in the future Will not use.

**Gary:**Threads is very friendly to ins users, all data can be synchronized with one key, and the interaction logic is the same as that of Twitter, which reduces the cost of use. Although it is almost the same as Twitter, it solves the problem of sharing images based on ins, and focuses more on content sharing, which is complementary to ins. The homepage can be set to be public or private. My first reaction was that it might turn into a yellow T, but when I saw that some users had already posted side-by-side pictures, they were deleted, which guaranteed the principle of the community. Threads is more attractive to users who prefer a clean and healthy community.

The birth of Threads itself did not intend to be very innovative. As mentioned earlier, one is a supplement to the pure picture community of ins, and the other is to establish a community with a healthier positioning than Twitter. As for saying that the Twitter traffic is so large, it is just for a healthier community atmosphere, I am skeptical that Threads will survive a year. I haven’t seen Threads’ product competitiveness yet.

Don’t say anything

Solomon: The consistent roundness of Logo and icon endows Threads products with affinity, and the minimalist color and interface interpret the beauty of design subtraction. Compared with other dazzling social products, it has a pure sense of connection between people.

Leah: The homepage recommendation algorithm combines strong association and weak association, and users can also set the privacy mode independently, which is very friendly to both I and E people.

Little sunspot collection

halou.eth: It’s not fun, and I haven’t found a single innovative point. It is different from Nostr, but it uses the traffic recommendation mechanism like Twitter and Douyin. Overall, this is a soulless app.

Yobo: Let me talk about the conclusion first, Threads is now “useless”. Reason: I haven’t used Instagram for many years and forgot my account. This morning I struggled for a long time and failed to register. I can’t experience Threads at all, so the experience is zero. No matter whether it’s me or Xiaozha, it’s for today The 20 minutes wasted in the morning is a mindless spray.

Frank: The biggest flaw is that the development is based on Instagram user data, so I can only log in with an INS account—for users like me who rarely use ins and have never downloaded ins on their mobile phones, the old account When I logged in, it showed that it was frozen, and when it was unfrozen, there was still a photo with a white paper in hand. In short, the first step was all kinds of persuasion… and it seems that I haven’t seen a way to directly register a new account in Threads, and I have to download Instagram to register one new?

Luffy: For me who doesn’t use ins, I am not attractive at all. Xiao Zha chose to launch a product that is not much different from the Twitter experience in the trend of “escaping Twitter”. Is it too anxious or lacks confidence? .

Shingle: There are two continuations, which is hard to bear.