Meta Threads briefly went live earlier than planned
The would-be Twitter replacement was accessible online for a few hours ahead of its July 6th US and UK launch.
With Twitter seemingly on its last legs, it doesn't come as a big surprise that other social media giants would want to capitalize on the void. Meta is launching Threads, which allows users to write and comment on posts much in the same way as Twitter. Now we've gotten a brief look at how Threads will operate, thanks to users profiles briefly showing up early on its website.
For over an hour this morning conversations and profiles were publicly visible on Threads.net. But by 10AM ET the site had returned to displaying a countdown to the official launch in the US and UK on June 6th.
Instagram head Adam Mosseri used his first few posts to share more about Thread's purpose and features, including an image demonstrating how to limit replies. "We have lots of work to do, but we're looking to build an open, civil place for people to have conversations," Mosseri shared in his first post. Users will also be able to Repost (instead of Retweet) individual Threads, as well as share them.
Threads will eventually include Fediverse integration, allowing users to follow and interact with users on other services like Mastodon. Mosseri confirmed that Meta is "committed" to supporting the ActivityPub protocol but the company wasn't able to finish the integration before launch. "You may one day end up leaving Threads, or, hopefully not, end up de-platformed," the Instagram chief explained. "If that ever happens, you should be able to take your audience with you to another server. Being open can enable that."
Meta employees like CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Mosseri have been posting alongside celebs like Shakira and Gordon Ramsey and a range of influencers who were given first access to Threads. The limited number of initial users reflects in current follower counts, with most profiles only having a few hundred and Zuckerberg and Mosseri at only a couple thousand.
Threads will be available on the web and for download on the App Store and Google Play Store starting the morning of July 6th in the US and UK. It won't be available across the rest of Europe yet, though, likely due to stricter EU data privacy rules. In the meantime, Meta employees aren't averse to patting themselves on the back while taking a dig at Twitter, as Meta product designer Peter Franko did in his first post on the site.
Update July 5th, 2023, 11:40 AM ET: This story has been updated to reflect that Threads conversations and profiles are no longer publicly viewable.
