Threads is now available but not in Europe

Meta launched a limited version of Threads, a service that competes directly with Twitter. Users can like, comment on, and share other people's messages in addition to posting up to five minutes of text, photos, and video.

Despite the platform's limited accessibility, 10 million users signed up in the first 7 hours, according to Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta. This is the most recent update on his page; the two before it showed 2 million sign-ups in the first two hours and 5 million in the next four.

A quick calculation shows that every second, between 250 and 350 persons from more than 100 different countries register. Regulators revealed yesterday that Meta is still working to make the new service GDPR-compliant, so users in the EU will have to wait a little while before registering the platform. The figure undoubtedly would have been larger had Threads opened in the European Union.

According to Zuckerberg, Threads has more goals than simply serving as a Twitter substitute for Musk. It will soon be able to communicate with Mastodon and WordPress thanks to its compatibility with the open protocol ActivityPub. This will enable new kinds of connections between people that are not now available on popular social media apps.

The Threads app may be downloaded via the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, and threads.net on a PC. Using an existing Instagram username and account is the simplest way to connect. More features will soon be added to the service itself, including suggested postings, a more thorough search engine, and simpler navigation for keeping up with real-world trends akin to hashtags.