Instagram’s Threads: all the updates on the new Twitter competitor

Is Instagram Threads going to become the fastest-growing app of all time? Sure looks like it. Will Meta care about it long-term, will it ever launch in the EU, will Threads ever actually embrace the fediverse? Who knows. Are ads coming to Threads? You betcha.

This week on the show, it’s all Threads all the time.

This morning @Google posted its first message to Threads, and a quick look at its Instagram profile reveals the account is customer number 67,461,606. Mark Zuckerberg might chime in again once Threads passes 100 million registered accounts, which shouldn’t take long at the current pace — about 24 hours ago, the number was 30 million.

Update (12:01PM ET): Zuckerberg confirmed Threads has registered 70 million sign-ups.

Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram and its Twitter-competitor Threads, has pushed back at criticism from Jack Dorsey and Elon Musk over its algorithmic feed.

“Both Instagram and Facebook have chronological feeds options, so yes, we’re going to bring one to Threads too,” Mosseri said. Here’s hoping you’ll be able to set it as the default, and it’s not hidden away.

After just one day of operation, Instagram’s new social app is already halfway to 100 million accounts. Alex Heath just noted 48 million in this post and a Command Line update sent out today, but the Threads number keeps climbing. (Check the Instagram account of anyone who’s registered, and it will tell you if they were 1st, 50 millionth, or somewhere in between.)

Where do you think Zuckerberg & Co. will be when we wake up tomorrow?

When I went to look at why Mastodon users shouldn’t worry about Meta building on the ActivityPub protocol, I couldn’t — my Mastodon.xyz account had disappeared.

The problem was DNS-related (it’s always DNS, remember Facebook’s massive 2021 outage?), and after a 23-hour, 59-minute break, the server’s back online.

But it shows how decentralization can cut both ways — while this problem didn’t take down all of Mastodon, it left me trying to track down whoever runs my server to find out what happened.

“It is infinitely preferable to be attacked by strangers on Twitter, than indulge in the false happiness of hide-the-pain Instagram.” - Elon Musk, @elonmusk (1), (2).

“We’re often imitated — but the Twitter community can never be duplicated.” - Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino, @lindayacc.

Threads activated more than 30 million profiles overnight.

Now that Instagram Threads has rolled out to the public (that doesn’t live in the EU), Instagram leader Adam Mosseri acknowledged many of the features it’s currently missing, like “search, hashtags, a following feed, graph syncing, fedeverse support, messaging maybe…”

The spelling of fediverse also reminds us that currently, you can’t edit Threads posts. (Or are they tweets? The people will decide.)

For an example of what success looks like on an Instagram scale, Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg says that the goal is to get Threads on a “clear path to 1 billion people” before figuring out monetization.

This mirrors what Adam Mosseri said in an interview with Alex Heath, about the “champagne problem” of making money with Threads:

If we are successful, if we make something that lots of people love and keep using, we will, I’m sure, monetize it. And I would be confident that the business model will be ads. Right now, we are not focused on monetization. We’re very, very focused on just trying to make something that people love to use. And then, if we get something to scale, that’ll be a champagne problem.

Meta’s boss made his last update seven hours ago when it was at 10 million, but more than twelve hours after launch, the pace of registrations (which consists of clicking a button three or four times, assuming you already have one of the 2 billion-plus Instagram accounts) for Threads hasn’t slowed down.

The highest registration number I’ve seen so far (visible on the Instagram profile of a linked account) is 26,051,591.

Update (11:19AM ET): Zuckerberg is awake, and the count is now 30 million, and rising.

A very tired Instagram head Adam Mosseri has posted a brief video to announce that a) he hasn’t slept all night and b) 10 million users have signed up to Threads in seven hours. “Lots more to do,” Mosseri says.

Why is Thread’s plan to use the same decentralized protocol (ActivityPub) as Mastodon a “clear victory for our cause,” according to the founder / CEO of Mastodon?

A few of the answers given:

A server you are not signed up with and logged into cannot get your private data or track you across the web.

Unless you use Threads, you will not see any ads from Threads.

even if Threads abandoned ActivityPub down the line, where we would end up is exactly where we are now

Even if you follow or send a message to a Threads user from your Mastodon account, Threads will not be able to collect any of your private information except the message you sent.

It’s worth reading, even if seeing Meta getting ready to plug millions of users into the fediverse has you a bit worried about the future of other Twitter alternatives.

Mark Zuckerberg announced Instagram’s Threads app has over 5 million registered accounts already.

Launching a new social network on the back of one that has over a billion users has its advantages — new user accounts on Threads are already showing registration numbers beyond 2 million just two hours after its launch, which Mark Zuckerberg confirmed with a post.

Before the app opened its doors at 7PM ET, there were fewer than 3,000 registered accounts.

If you’re wondering what your number is — it’s listed on your account on Instagram after you join Threads. The official @TheVerge Threads account is #45,093.

Mark Zuckerberg logged in to his rarely-used Twitter account to post a quick joke on the day Instagram launched Threads, an app that is trying to be a lot like Twitter.

The leaker who’s uncovered so many features and unmentioned details in apps like Twitter and Instagram, now works for Meta on its new social platform.

That’s one way to keep her from finding and posting future Threads leaks; congratulations Jane!

Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri agrees with us that posts on Threads are “kind of” tweets, so maybe we can find a middle ground.