Opinion: I spent 6 hours on Threads so now you have to too

Instagram’s answer to Twitter - Threads has arrived. Viren Sean Noronha, ex-Head of Social at Swiggy and Tinder shares his experience being on Threads - the direct rival to Twitter.

A quick clarification. By their ‘answer’ to Twitter I mean.

Fine. If you think I’m being cynical just look at Mark Zuckerberg’s launch tweet:

First please follow me on Threads. Now enough flirting. Let’s get into why I (and two million others) spent 6 hours on an app that is just like another app, that I’ve already been on for over six years.

Threads UI/UX feels and looks familiar

Right off the bat Threads feels exactly like Twitter. That’s honestly smart on their part. Because your experience and instincts seamlessly transfer from there to here. You spend no time fumbling to figure the UI out. You can get straight to posting or ‘Threading’ And that’s mainly because…

Threads onboarding is practically automatic

Thanks to the Instagram integration you already have a profile picture and you can even import your bio. Your username is the same (thank god) and verified profiles, even paid ones, will retain their coveted blue tick on Threads.

Now here’s where things get interesting…

What really gives Threads an edge over Twitter? What got all of us hooked from 6 am in the morning till now (yes I’ve frequently stopped writing to check my page) is…

Your followers travel with you to Threads

You can take ALL your Instagram followers with you to Threads. But not in one go. And that’s genius. Why? Ok. Name a better feeling than a constant barrage of follower notifications throughout the day. Instead of giving you all your followers in one go, they give them to you one by one. As each of them signs into the app. Notification by notification. Serotonin hit by serotonin hit. You are constantly refreshing it to see that number go up. Almost like you’re earning them. Instagram you cunning devils you.

To put things into perspective. This is me after three years on Twitter-

Also Read: Twitter rival Threads goes live; passes 2 million sign ups

This is me after three hours on Threads:

You can post Threads to Instagram as a story or a feed post. You can even post to Twitter.

The latter has to be the ultimate f*** you to Twitter. The former is once again evidence of how well Instagram understands not only its audience but the internet culture as a whole. Instagram is already brimming with Tweet screenshots. It’s an existing content culture on social.

The ‘post to feed’ option literally takes you to your Instagram with a ready-to-post ‘Threads screenshot’. Why Twitter hasn’t thought of this yet is beyond me.

You’re seeing engagement on your Threads from the get-go

A tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea. — Seth Godin

Replace tribe with followers, leader with your name, and idea with your brand of content. Why do most of us see such a stark contrast in engagement between our IG content and TW content, even if, we’re posting the same thing? That’s because our IG and TW tribes are largely different. People on Instagram don’t want to be on Twitter and vice versa. And, curating that same audience from scratch takes not only time but sustained creative effort that can very quickly feel futile if you’re not getting results. Plus, if you’re a brand/social media manager what you want when you post is-

In comes Threads where you’re not only promising people an easy onboarding experience but curated clout from the get-go. You arrive on Threads with your tribe in tow. And with it open the sweet sweet floodgates of engagement. Notification by notification. Hit by hit. And that’s the stuff of life for any social page guys. Brand or individual.

Why wouldn’t you invest more in a channel where you’re getting more engagement?

A few other nice touches…

• You can check out someone’s IG by clicking the icon above their profile
• Each profile pic has a + so you can follow them from your feed itself v/s Twitter’s pop-up box.
• You can ‘Take a break’ in the settings. It sends you a reminder to get off the app every 10, 20, or 30 minutes based on what you choose.
• All the accounts you’ve blocked on IG are automatically blocked on Threads.

A few weird things I noticed…

• To delete your Threads account you have to delete your whole Instagram account too. Petition to change the name from Threads to Chains?
• You can’t see how many people someone else is following.
• There is no trending topic or Explore page…yet.
• Elon Musk doesn’t have a Threads account yet

That’s it. This is all you need to know. Go forth and Thread lightly, or don’t it’s up to you. But there is something I want to know, and that’s:

This article is penned by Viren Sean Noronha, ex-Head of Social at Swiggy and Tinder.

Disclaimer: The article features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the stance of the publication.