cross-posted from: https://discuss.online/post/128452
It seems that there are at least 30 Million people that want a different experience than me.
Forbes described the Threads service with the following summary:
The most significant difference between the two platforms is the timeline, as Meta’s app only displays an algorithmic timeline—in a similar vein to Facebook and Instagram—and offers no option for a Twitter-like reverse chronological time showing the most recent posts.
The algorithm-driven timeline also displays posts made by accounts that the user does not follow—something that Twitter only restricts to its alternate “For You” timeline.
Threads is a mobile-only experience at the moment and users can only make posts, write comments and follow people on the platform’s mobile app, unlike Twitter, which allows all of this on its website as well.
Meta’s official blog announcing the launch of Threads also makes no mention of a native desktop or web browser experience, which is currently limited to seeing people’s posts and their profile pages.
Hashtags—a key element of Twitter’s identity and a feature that has permeated other social platforms including Facebook and Instagram—are not present on Threads, as the platform does not allow users to search for specific content.
This means that there is no “trending section” on Threads and the only way to discover content on the platform is based on what Meta’s algorithm decides to serve.
I think it’s a), but only because who has an Instagram account, automatically has a Threads account. There is no other way that 70 million people “joined” in just 3 days.
They are generally counting installations of the app. So it does take conscious effort to be one of the counted. But it’s certainly less friction than most new services.