How does the app work with Instagram?
Once on Threads, according to Lia Haberman, author of the social media newsletter ICYMI, creators and public figures can log in with a single sign-on with their Instagram username and password and sync up with their existing followers. The user’s handle, bio, and verification will migrate over from Instagram. Threads users will be able to search for, follow and interact with creators and public figures on the app.
Users can post text updates up to 500 characters and can attach links, photos and videos up to five minutes long. They can interact via likes, replies and reposts.
Built on the back of Instagram, Threads will operate based on Instagram’s existing guidelines. Blocked accounts and users will carry over on Threads.
Who is using it?
Meta is actively courting creators and celebrities to the platform, sources previously told Adweek. According to leaked tweets by Alessandro Paluzzi, current Threads testers included Vogue editor Gabriella Karefa-Johnson and creators like Shabaz Says alongside official accounts for streaming services like Netflix.
“Meta only needs roughly one-in-four Instagram users to use Threads monthly to make it as big as Twitter,” said Enberg. “If the company can attract even a handful of top Instagram creators from its wide user base, audiences will follow.”
What about data and privacy, especially in Europe?
According to the App Store listing, Threads will import all the data from Instagram, including behavioral and advertising information, such as health and fitness data, financial information, browsing history and sensitive information.
Posting a screenshot of Thread’s privacy policy, Twitter’s former CEO, Jack Dorsey, referred to Meta’s massive data collection practice saying “All your Threads belong to us.”
But, the data transfer from Instagram to Threads has limited the company’s release in the EU, according to Bloomberg, as Meta awaits guidance on the Digital Markets Act, a regulation designed to rein the monopoly of the gatekeepers of the digital economy. This will indicate how data sharing between Instagram and Threads will be regulated.
A spokesperson for Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) told the Independent that the regulator had received information about the new app and that it would not be rolled out in the EU “at this point.”
What are the opportunities for marketers?
While the question of how Threads will make money still remains, Enberg pointed out that ads are Meta’s bread and butter, making them an obvious choice. Subscriptions and paywalled content could be another revenue stream fit for the creator-focused app.
