Threads, the Twitter competitor that kills Instagram, will arrive on July 6

Twitter has never been without rivals, but the social network’s lurch since its acquisition by Elon Musk has served to give some attention to proposals new and old, from Bluesky to Mastodon. But there is a competitor that you have a lot of possibilities to go further than the rest: Threads. This application is being developed in almost absolute secrecy by Instagram, and despite the fact that information about it is still very scarce, everything indicates that its launch will take place almost imminently.

TechCrunch post that the iOS store has been updated with the Threads tab, where you can read that it will be available from July 6. It is unknown if this will also be the release date for Android or the desktop version. All there are are several screenshots showing a layout that combines Twitter conversations (including post liking and sharing options) with classic Instagram iconography and layout, accompanied by a brief description.

One of the strengths of Threads is that you don’t have to create a community from scratch. Meta’s strategy involves importing the lists of followers directly from the Instagram account, also keeping the username. Integration with Instagram could be an interesting proposition for some users, thus reducing the confusion and extra work generated by using multiple social networks, since the username and password would be shared (although Technically Threads will be a separate app).

An interesting aspect of Threads is that, despite its connection to Instagram, it would have a decentralized operation. It would also be compatible in some way with Mastodon, but to what degree is unclear. It also remains to be seen whether Instagram’s rules of use are attractive to the Twitter community, given the differences in behavior between the two social networks.

Threads stopped being a secret last May, when a small number of content creators were invited to participate in its testing. Apparently, Meta has contacted personalities from all walks of life to create a more robust community than other rivals that already have a community of users, but few especially relevant profiles. Obviously, Meta is counting on Instagram’s community of influencers and content creators to quickly hop on top of any celebs they’ve already been able to recruit.

Either way, Threads should be going public very soon, and one can imagine that Meta will want to publicize it properly with some kind of event or announcement explaining all its features.