Differences between Musk’s Twitter & Zuckerberg’s Threads

On July 6, 2023, Mark Zuckerberg, the well-known CEO of Meta Platforms, made news when he unveiled Threads, an innovative app that has rapidly gained significant traction. Threads, which is frequently hailed as a formidable Twitter rival, experienced an astounding rise in popularity, gathering over 30 million sign-ups in just 18 hours. Users and business observers alike are ecstatic about this unprecedented response.

Due to its distinctive features that allow users to share brief summaries and repost other people’s content onto their own feeds, Threads has been widely acknowledged by numerous media outlets as a potential “Twitter killer” or “Twitter clone.” The app’s features and design have struck a chord with a sizable number of users, leading to its quick uptake and wide-spread praise.

If you’re wondering how exactly Threads differs from Twitter, the following are some key distinctions:

Recently, Twitter gave its premium users the option to edit tweets. The ability to edit posts after they have been published is not currently available in Threads. If a user wants to make changes to Threads, they must either delete the post or make a new one. Post editing may, however, be added to Threads in the near future given that Facebook and Instagram have both had this feature for a while.

In contrast to Twitter, which allows users to access its platform through any web browser, Threads is only available as a mobile application. There isn’t a web version of Threads available right now for browsing. Despite having an official website, Threads.net, it only directs users to download the Threads app for Android or iOS to fully experience the service.

The lack of a direct messaging (DM) feature on the Threads platform is one of its drawbacks. Users are unable to privately message one another on Threads. To improve user privacy, the platform recently added end-to-end encryption. As a result, users of the Threads app are unable to create private connections or use direct messaging.

Another noteworthy aspect of Threads is the lack of hashtags. Although hashtags are frequently used on websites like Twitter, this feature is not yet available in Threads. However, it is anticipated that Threads will soon add hashtag support, much like other Meta-owned social media sites like Instagram and Facebook, which have been using hashtags for a long time.

Additionally, users of Threads are not currently able to edit the alternative text or alt text for uploaded images and videos. Instead of using human-produced alt text, Threads uses computer-generated alt text, which can be less accessible for people who use screen readers. As opposed to many other social media sites, Threads does not currently support user-supplied descriptive alt text, which might limit accessibility for users who are blind or visually impaired.

Twitter is well known for its trending topics feature, which enables users to quickly find the latest information and hot topics. To date, at least, Threads does not have a section specifically for trending topics like Twitter does.

Threads does not feature advertisements on its platform, in contrast to Twitter. For users, this lack of advertisements is a benefit. According to the CEO of Meta, Threads won’t be able to start running ads until it has amassed a significant user base of about one billion people. This suggests that, for the time being, Threads wants to maintain an ad-free experience, providing a user environment that may be more organized and focused.

At the moment, Threads does not provide the option to embed posts on third-party websites like blogs. Unfortunately, there is no option to create an embedded post link if you find something worthwhile on Threads and want to share it on your blog.

On the other hand, Twitter has long allowed users to create embedded post links, making it simple to share tweets on various websites and blogs.

In terms of its feed architecture, Threads operates differently from Twitter. As opposed to Twitter, which offers distinct feeds like “For You” and “Following,” Threads currently offers a single feed that includes content from followers as well as trending posts. Unfortunately, Threads does not currently offer a way to only see posts from users you are following.

Additionally, Threads lacks the option to enable a chronological feed, in contrast to Twitter, which does so (although it is not the default setting). Instead, Threads makes use of a randomly generated feed, so the posting order might not always be chronological.

Much remains to be seen as to how these two platforms pan out in the days to come! Will Elon Musk Triumph the Social Media Race or will Zuckerberg keep the space man out of the goldilock zone for social apps?