A new app that resembles Twitter will soon be unveiled by Meta as a direct threat to the Elon Musk-owned social media network.
The app, dubbed Threads, had a listing on Apple’s App Store saying that it would launch as soon as Thursday. It is advertised as a “text-based conversation app” that is connected to Instagram, and the listing teases a microblogging interface akin to Twitter.
The statement added, “Communities gather on Threads to discuss everything from the subjects you care about today to what will be popular tomorrow.”
According to screenshots posted on the App Store listing, Instagram users will be able to preserve their user names and follow the same profiles on the new app. Meta opted not to comment on the application.
Musk responded “yeah” to a tweet from Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter, stating that “All your Threads belong to us,” accompanied with a screenshot from the App Store’s policy section displaying what private data the new Meta app may acquire.
Threads might be the next difficulty for Musk, who last year paid $44 billion to acquire Twitter and has since made changes that have alarmed advertisers and alienated users.
As part of the most recent change, Twitter announced on Monday that users will need to be verified in order to access the online dashboard TweetDeck. Due to Musk’s modifications, users must pay to have their accounts verified, which appears to be done in an effort to generate more cash. The new policy will go into force in 30 days.
Companies and news outlets like TweetDeck because it lets users manage many Twitter accounts.
Following Musk’s announcement that Twitter has restricted the number of tweets users can access each day in an effort to prevent the unauthorized harvesting of potentially lucrative data, Twitter has already come under fire.
Musk’s conflict with Meta Platforms may potentially wind up affecting the actual world. Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, appeared to agree to a cage match duel in an online conversation; however, it’s not clear if they will actually enter the ring.
