Why Twitter Rival Threads Could Be the Next Great Social Media App

A better way to share online?

By
Sascha Brodsky
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Sascha Brodsky
Senior Tech Reporter
  • Macalester College
  • Columbia University
Sascha Brodsky is a freelance journalist based in New York City. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, the Guardian, the Los Angeles Times and many other publications.
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Published on July 10, 2023 09:19AM EDT
Fact checked by
Jerri Ledford
Jerri Ledford
Fact checked by Jerri Ledford
  • Western Kentucky University
  • Gulf Coast Community College
Jerri L. Ledford has been writing, editing, and fact-checking tech stories since 1994. Her work has appeared in Computerworld, PC Magazine, Information Today, and many others.
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Social Media
  • Threads is a quickly growing Twitter rival.
  • You can use your Instagram account to sign up for Threads.
  • Experts say Threads is still missing some key features.
The main Threads page shown on a smartphone screen.
The Threads app.

The new social media app Threads is quickly gaining followers, but experts say it will have to add more features to win out over Twitter. 

Threads has picked up more than 70 million sign-ups, and its debut seems to have rattled Twitter enough that it is now threatening legal action. The new app is a way to share text and images, and it's shaking up the social media world. 

"Threads has a unique advantage—access to Instagram's enormous user base, potentially attracting users who have yet to venture onto Twitter," social media expert Mike Mandell told Lifewire in an email interview. "Nevertheless, this advantage could also be a drawback. While Twitter has long served as a platform for news and public discourse, Threads may appeal more to users seeking closer connections within their follower community."

Growing Threads

The Threads app looks similar to Twitter, with a feed of posts consisting of text, photos, and videos where people can have real-time conversations. Messages posted to Threads will have a 500-character limit. Like Twitter, users can reply to, repost, and quote others' Threads posts.

Threads is made by Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, and the app's integration with Instagram makes it easy to get started, social media trainer Rhea Freeman said in an email. Once you sign up, you can follow those you already follow on Instagram, and it takes your user name, bio, and profile picture from the service. 

"I also like the Hidden Words feature on Threads that has come over from Instagram and can help people to control the content that they see," she added. "Another big thing is that Threads is shiny and new and that everyone feels like they're in it together and starting small."

Threads allows for more organized and structured discussions than Twitter, making it easier to follow conversations and maintain context, digital marketing expert Jeff Mains, the CEO of Champion Leadership Group, noted in an email to Lifewire. He said Threads users can delve deeper into topics without cluttering their timelines. 

"Threads enable users to tell cohesive and comprehensive stories or share longer thoughts, unlike Twitter's character limit," he added. "This feature promotes richer content creation and enhances storytelling capabilities."

Threads has a unique advantage—access to Instagram's enormous user base, potentially attracting users who have yet to venture onto Twitter.

Threads' Missing Features

You might want to hold onto your Twitter account a while longer. Freeman said two significant features that need to be added to Threads are direct messaging and hashtags.

"I find the hashtag a great way to find people talking about things that I want to read about, and it also allows for content to be categorized to promote reach beyond current users," she added. "Direct messaging is also missing, but I'm not really missing this personally."

If Threads wants to truly overtake Twitter, then it needs more options for filtering content, Josh Weiss, the CEO of Reggie, said in an email to Lifewire. The main Threads feed is filled with a combination of accounts you follow and recommended posts. 

"But not everyone wants to see random content each day," he added. "If Threads adds an option to see chronological posts and gives users a tab where they can just see posts from people they actively follow, then it will have most of the major features that set Twitter apart."

Screenshots from Threads
The Threads app.

Meta

Twitter still has a vast following, Noah Mallin, the chief strategy officer at IMGN Media, noted in an email to Lifewire.

"The biggest miss with Threads so far is the lack of real-time urgency—that if something is happening in the world, this is the campfire we gather around," he added. 

The biggest appeal of Threads is that it offers the functionality of Twitter but without Twitter CEO Elon Musk, said Jeffrey Blevins, a journalism professor at the University of Cincinnati, in an email to Lifewire. 

"Musk has made several unpopular decisions since taking over Twitter, such as charging users to be verified, limiting the number of tweets an account can read, etc.," he added. "Moreover, he's at least perceived as (I don't believe that it has been necessarily empirically proven) boosting far-right politics on the platform. At the same time, people tend to resent Zuckerberg as well, and if Threads really takes off—he will own the holy trinity of social media platforms—Facebook, Instagram, and Threads—all under the Meta banner."

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