We have seen glimpses of the Meta alternative to Twitter known as Threads, thanks to screenshots from an employee preview session making it to the internet. Now, the app has made appearances on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. It even has an expected launch date.
On both app stores though, it has a full name of Threads, an Instagram app. Which is probably needed since there is another app with the same name. One easy way to tell the difference is the one by Meta has a black-and-white logo with a stylised @ symbol.
To go over what we already know about the app, Meta’s Threads can allow you to basically port over your existing followers and following list from Instagram. Since it also supports ActivityPub integration, you can potentially migrate accounts to and from other apps that supports the protocol, one example being Mastodon.
One screenshot on the App Store and Play Store shows the ability to restrict who can reply to your threads, which the choices being anyone, profiles you follow, or mentioned only. Which is another similarity to the bird app, beyond the interface looking like a mash between Twitter and Instagram as it is.
As mentioned above, the app now has a launch date, which is only visible if you look at the app’s page on the Apple App Store on an iPhone, for some reason. The date in question is 6 July, but you can already preload it onto your iPhone if that’s something you choose to do. No such option for Android devices, as the app is only visible if you go to its page on the Google Play Store via browser.
(Source: Threads, an Instagram app [1], [2])
