META is set to launch a new app to rival Twitter.
The new social media platform, to be known as ‘Threads’, will go live on Thursday July 6.
Threads is accessible for pre-order on the Apple App Store, which will be linked to Instagram.
The app shares some similarities to Twitter but Meta describes Threads as a “text based conversation app”.
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“Threads is where communities come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to what’ll be trending tomorrow,” the description of the new platform on the App Store read.
The development is the latest in the rivalry between Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter owner Elon Musk.
Meanwhile, Twitter has said that the popular user dashboard, TweetDeck, will go behind a paywall in 30 days time.
The move is the latest push by Musk as he tries to get users to sign up to Twitter’s subscription service, Twitter Blue.
The previous Saturday, the business mogul restricted the number of tweets users could see, specifying extreme “data scraping”.
Furthermore, it seems Meta’s Threads app will be a service free – and no restrictions on how many posts a user can view. Formally a Meta app, Threads will also hoover up data on your phone, including location data, purchases and browsing history.
Meanwhile, there have also been similar apps that have remarkable resemblance to Twitter in recent times – such as Donald Trump’s Truth Social and Mastodon. Bluesky, another similar app claimed to have seen “record” traffic after Musk’s move to restrict usage at the weekend.
However, Zuckerberg’s Threads could be the biggest threat faced by Twitter to date.