Mark Zuckerberg vs Elon Musk: Meta’s Twitter clone Threads sees 5 million signups in 4 hours

Threads also topped the charts in terms of downloads on the iOS App Store.

Earlier, Zuckerberg had posted that Threads saw over two million downloads just two hours after launch.

Meta launched Threads on Thursday as a standalone app. However, users must have an active Instagram account to sign up for Threads. New users will have to set up an Instagram account.

Much like Twitter it allows users to post short texts, images and videos.

“Let’s do this. Welcome to Threads,” Zuckerburg wrote in his first post on the new platform.

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The app went live on Apple and Android app stores in over 100 countries at 23:00 GMT with high-profile celebrities such as Shakira and Jack Black, as well as media outlets such as The Hollywood Reporter, Vice and Netflix already having active accounts.Instagram head Adam Mosseri said in his post on the new platform that Threads was intended to build “an open and friendly platform for conversations”.

“The best thing you can do if you want that too is be kind,” he wrote.

Posts on Threads can be up to 500 characters long and include links, photos, and videos up to 5 minutes in length. “You can easily share a Threads post to your Instagram story, or share your post as a link on any other platform you choose,” Instagram said.

The company said that it is working to make Threads interoperable with other apps such as Mastodon and WordPress. Besides, core accessibility features available on Instagram, such as screen-reader support and AI-generated image descriptions, are also enabled on Threads.

The company is also working on rolling the app out to more countries but has cited regulatory uncertainty for its decision to hold off the launch in Europe.

Meta Platforms has been gearing up to take on Twitter after billionaire Elon Musk’s tumultuous ownership has resulted in a series of unpopular changes that have upset users and advertisers.

In a veiled jibe hinting at data being collected by Threads, Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey said, “All your Threads are belong to us” and included a screenshot of the disclosure agreement. Musk replied “yeah.”