Instagram has been working on a Twitter competitor named Threads, which was leaked a few weeks back. Now, it appears the company is all set to launch it in the coming days or weeks officially.
The official Instagram Threads application from Meta is now available for pre-order on Apple’s App Store, indicating that the launch is imminent.
While the company has not yet revealed the launch date, the listing on the App Store reveals that the application could get launched on 6th July, in just a couple of days. It is being said that Instagram Threads will integrate with the decentralized social media protocol used by Mastodon, called ActivityPub.
The official description of the application on the App Store listing reads: “Threads is where communities come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to what’ll be trending tomorrow. Whatever it is you’re interested in, you can follow and connect directly with your favorite creators and others who love the same things or build a loyal following of your own to share your ideas, opinions and creativity with the world.”
It remains to be seen if the company will adopt a slower rollout for users, which is more likely to happen. So, while the app may be available for download from the 6th of July, not everyone will be able to post on the platform from that date.
Twitter has been facing a lot of issues with the platform, especially after its acquisition by Elon Musk. While there were issues with the content moderation policies, the platform has had a lot of technical problems over the past few weeks. Given Twitter’s condition these days, it looks like a perfect time to launch a competing product.