By Adam Mawardi

6 July 2023 • 2:33am

Meta has officially launched its rival to Twitter, offering users an alternative to the social media platform owned by billionaire Elon Musk.

The app, called Threads, offers a text-based version of Meta’s photo-sharing app Instagram designed for “real-time updates and public conversations”.

The app is now available to download from Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store in over 100 countries, including the UK, US, Australia, Canada and Japan.

However, Threads has not been launched in the EU because of the bloc’s strict data privacy rules.

Meta, the parent company of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, has been building Threads for several months and has sought to recruit celebrity users who have abandoned Twitter in protest at Mr Musk’s often erratic leadership.

Instagram, which developed the new app, also hopes its existing large user base will provide an advantage against Twitter.

Meta said: “Instagram is where billions of people around the world connect over photos and videos. Our vision with Threads is to take what Instagram does best and expand that to text, creating a positive and creative space to express your ideas.”

The initial version of Threads offers features which share strong similarities to rival social network Twitter.

Meta’s microblogging platform allows users to share updates of up to 500 characters long, as well as links, photos and videos of up to five minutes long. They can also like, repost, reply to or quote a thread.

Users will be able to log in through their existing Instagram accounts and will be encouraged to follow the celebrities, creators and friends they already followed on the photo-sharing app.

Meta said that further features are to be added to Threads, including improved recommendations and a more advanced search function that helps users discover new creators and follow topics and trends in real time.

It places pressure on Twitter, which has struggled to convert users into paying subscribers under Mr Musk’s ‘Twitter Blue’ offering.

However, Meta’s new platform has raised concerns over data privacy after it emerged that Threads could collect personal data, including on health, financial, location, search history and browsing history.