​5 things you need to know when you start Threads

This week, Instagram introduced its new, standalone Threads app. There is immediately a lot of buzz around this app, but what exactly can you do with it and what should you keep in mind when you embark on the Threads adventure?

1. How it works

It’s useful to know how it works: it’s like Twitter, but then you can write much longer messages. Your messages can be up to 500 characters long. It is also possible to add photos and videos, where the videos can be up to 5 minutes long. The idea of ​​Threads is that the updates are often text-based, otherwise it is just like Instagram.

2. That it is decentralized

Threads is a decentralized social network and it uses ActivityPub, an open protocol from the World Wide Web Consortium that allows you to use Threads in combination with WordPress and Mastodon, among others. If you have a public profile on Threads, you can expect people to read your posts in other apps as well. That means you don’t have to post the same thing in multiple places and that’s so clean.

3. That you could lose your Instagram account

An option to unlink it seems to be in the works, but at the moment when you create a Threads account, when you delete that account, you also have to delete your entire Instagram account because they are linked. That’s rather inconvenient, especially if you just want to see if Threads is for you and may have already concluded that it isn’t and want to delete your account. A temporary option is to temporarily deactivate your Threads account, but removing it completely is not recommended at the moment.

4. That you are not alone

On Thursday there were still some people complaining that it was a bit quiet on the social medium, but yes, quite wiedes: it was just online. In the meantime, the number of users has grown much more: more than 30 million people are on Threads and such numbers often manage to attract larger numbers. There were some celebrities who had access to the app earlier, which means that they also attract more people because they have already been able to post a bit more content, but in general Threads is growing like crazy and that is quite special in a climate where we already many different social media.

5. That your privacy may be at stake

Threads isn’t officially available in Europe yet, and there’s a reason for that. The EU and Meta are constantly at odds over all kinds of privacy issues. Also, our data from the EU may not be sent to servers in the United States. In short, Meta does not seem very eager to release Threads in European countries, although there are certainly lifehacks to still use the app. In any case, the app also wants to use a lot of your data and, just like with other Meta apps, it is always exciting how much data ultimately goes to the company and, above all, what it does with it.

4. That you are not alone

On Thursday there were still some people complaining that it was a bit quiet on the social medium, but yes, quite wiedes: it was just online. In the meantime, the number of users has grown much more: more than 30 million people are on Threads and such numbers often manage to attract larger numbers. There were some celebrities who had access to the app earlier, which means that they also attract more people because they have already been able to post a bit more content, but in general Threads is growing like crazy and that is quite special in a climate where we already many different social media.

5. That you give up your privacy

Threads isn’t officially available in Europe yet, and there’s a reason for that. The EU and Meta are constantly at odds over all kinds of privacy issues. Also, our data from the EU may not be sent to servers in the United States. In short, Meta does not seem very eager to release Threads in European countries, although there are certainly lifehacks to still use the app. In any case, the app also wants to use a lot of your data and, just like with other Meta apps, it is always exciting how much data ultimately goes to the company and, above all, what it does with it.

Laura Jenny

When she’s not tapping, she’s traveling around the wonderful world of entertainment or some cool place in the real world. Mario is the man of her life,…