Facebook owner Meta Platforms plans to launch a Twitter-rivalling microblogging app called Threads, days after Twitter boss Elon Musk attracted criticism by announcing a temporary cap on how many posts users can read on the social media site.
Threads is expected to be released on Thursday and will allow users to retain followers from photo-sharing platform Instagram, and keep the same username, a listing on Apple's App Store showed.
The rollout represents a direct challenge to Twitter, which has faced numerous controversies since Musk bought the company for $44 billion in 2022.
While alternative microblogging sites – such as Mastodon and Blue Sky – have seen an uptick in user numbers since Musk's acquisition, neither has been able to challenge Twitter.
But Instagram already has hundreds of millions of registered users and has a history of introducing new features based on the success of other social media firms.
In 2016, it added a feature called "stories" to Instagram, or user posts that disappear after a fixed amount of time, in response to the rising popularity of Snapchat.
More recently, the company's short-form video feature "Reels" has sought to challenge the rise of TikTok.
Threads app was available for pre-order on mobile app stores on iPhone and Android operating systems on Monday.
"Threads is where communities come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to what'll be trending tomorrow," says the app's description on the store.
Meta announced in mid-March that it was working on a new social network whose description made it a potential competitor to Twitter.
Threads will enable users to "connect directly with your favorite creators and others who love the same things – or build a loyal following of your own to share your ideas, opinions and creativity with the world," according to its app store description.
"We're thinking about a decentralized, independent social network for sharing written messages in real-time," the group said in a statement sent to Agence France-Presse.
The launch of Threads represents a credible threat to Twitter under Musk, whose attempts to boost revenues and reshape the platform his own image have faced severe criticism.
After acquiring the company late last year, he laid off around 80% of staff and reinstated several banned accounts, such as those of former U.S. President Donald Trump and the conservative satirical news site Babylon Bee.
Hundreds of advertisers, concerned by a perceived rise in harmful content on the platform, paused spending with Twitter, and internal documents seen by Reuters showed the platform's most active users becoming disengaged.
Last week, Musk announced a slate of new restrictions on the app, limiting the number of posts users could view per day, prompting an outcry from many on the platform, with people not paying for subscriptions – by far most users – limited to 1,000 tweets a day.
The stated aim of the decision was to limit the use of the social network's data by third parties, in particular companies feeding artificial intelligence models.
