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Threads vs. Twitter
Let’s talk about the biggest differences between Threads vs. Twitter. ICYMI, Threads is arriving at a time when Twitter is undergoing controversial changes that are driving even long-term users to alternative micro-blogging platforms. If you’re following Threads coverage, you might see the app dubbed a “Twitter killer.” But do these apps truly serve the same purpose?
Account management: Twitter is an independent platform in the sense that’s not tied to another social media account the way that Threads requires you to have an Instagram account. What’s more, you’ll need to delete your Instagram account in order to delete your Threads account, whereas your Twitter account can be shut down without impacting your other social media pages.
Content feeds: As for what you see, on Twitter you can curate your post feed rather thoroughly, controlling what it is you want to be served. On Threads, there’s only one feed that seems to pull in a mixture of the accounts you follow as well as trending posts, almost like your main Instagram feed merged with the Discover page. You can only block accounts and mute words from your Threads feed at this time.
Search: In terms of search, on Twitter you can look up words or phrases to see all publicly-available recent and relevant posts. On Threads, you can only search for accounts. This makes Threads less of a destination for news or trending topics than Twitter.
Posting: What you can post on Twitter and Threads is virtually the same. You can share images, videos, articles and, of course, short messages. The key difference is that the Threads character limit is 500, while the Twitter character limit is just 280.
Engagement: Re: engagement, Twitter and Threads are actually pretty similar, too. Both have a like button, comment tool, repost and quote function, and share options.
Price: Threads is completely free to use, and as of now, is ad-free. Twitter, on the other hand, has some features locked behind the subscription-based Twitter Blue, with pricing starting at $8/month or $84/year.
Time to talk about my first impressions. Over 12 hours as a Threads user later, I’m surprised to see a majority of my Instagram mutuals have also launched accounts and shared around their Threads handle (shameless plug, mine is @348634.)
From my understanding, friends who rarely or never used Twitter have hopped on the Threads bandwagon, suggesting the Instagram integration is helping the app’s cause.
I’m excited to see people who are a bit more… calculated?… about what they share on Instagram show a bit more of their voice on Threads.
Tom’s Guide is on Threads! For now, we’re experimenting with the content we share on Threads. Check out our profile here and let us know which kinds of posts you’re interested in by hitting the heart icons.
Wondering how to sign up for Threads? As long as you already have an Instagram account, it’s a breeze. Once you’ve downloaded Threads from your respectives smartphone OS’s app store (links above) you can simply log in using your Instagram account credentials.
Once you’ve logged in, you’ll have the option to carry over your Instagram profile details and follow the same people you follow on Instagram who have also joined Threads. Of course, you could skip both of these if you want, tailoring your profile page to your liking and finding accounts to follow via the search tab.
Welcome to our Threads live blog. At the time of this writing, Threads has been live for more than 14 hours and has welcomed more than 10 million users.
It’s Kate Kozuch here, our managing editor of social and video. As my job title might suggest, I eagerly made a Threads account when the app became available at 7 p.m. ET. As a forewarning, I lost several precious hours of sleep to exploring Threads. Would I call it doom-scrolling? It’s hard to say, considering a majority of the posts I’ve seen so far are sewing puns.