I learned about the trick to search for "saymore" from a family member and see the red invite button on the search bar. She learned from some random.

Who was sanctimoniously instructing people to 'collectively be more civil'.

Not a platform I want to use, but the App seemed decent; smooth UI animations, clean interface, simple onboarding with an overall decent UX.

I think Instagram people who are Twitter curious will jump on it.

If they can get Celeb style Tweets and memes without having to interact with the Garbage Fire that is Twitter, then I think it's going to be a nice easy win for Meta.

Not a raging multi-billion dollar success like Instagram, but an OK casual slow burn that offers value to Instagram users.

I'm not saying Twitter is going to be around 20 years from now, but I do think the reports of its death are greatly exaggerated.

That was indication to me that claims of Twitter's death are, indeed, greatly exaggerated as always.

I don't doubt some people are getting rate limited, but I also have no doubt now that those people are the vocal minority while everyone else keeps on tweeting.

[1]: https://twitter.com/fgoproject/status/1676426390625812481

Web mobile UI is horrible though.*

* It doesn’t exist. Just a page to telling you to get the app. >.>

I downloaded it directly from the App Store because I’ve heard about it through external channels. Are they somehow notifying users to check Threads via their other apps (Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp)?

Yep, at least on Instagram, there's a "follow me on Threads" sticker you can add to your stories. (I rarely check FB these days, but there's probably something on there too.)

I suspect the surprise release today is to manage server load / "soft" launch. Wait until tomorrow for the real metrics.

Where as the entire Fediverse has 11 million registered users in 7 years.

I don't know how that 2M in 2 hours is 'oddly low' but at that rate, Threads will surpass the entire Fediverse in less than 24 hours and will be centralizing the Fediverse when it turns on ActivityPub.

In 2011, Google+ had 10 million users two weeks after the launch.[14] In a month, it had 25 million.[15] In October 2011, the service had 40 million users, according to Larry Page.[16] At the end of 2011, Google+ had 90 million users.[17] In October 2013, approximately 540 million monthly active users used the social layer by interacting with Google+'s enhanced properties, such as Gmail, the +1 button, and YouTube comments.[18] Some 300 million monthly active users participated in the social network by interacting with the Google+ social-networking stream. According to ComScore, the biggest market was the United States followed by India.

False. 2 billion people weren't using the internet 15 years ago. [0]

10 million users in 7 hours already surpasses that [1] Firefox statistic. The rapid growth of Threads is no joke.

[0] https://www.statista.com/statistics/273018/number-of-interne...

[1] https://www.threads.net/t/CuWGPjwrfq9

It's DAU/MAU numbers and retention that make the bigger difference. ActivityPub has had pretty good retention since the early era of Mastodon - not gangbusters growth, but enough for people to feel comfortable with the ecosystem as it stands and uninfluenced by a large instance.

AP's "core experience" is more like a combo of Usenet, web forums and email than XMPP or Twitter - it can be aggregated and surveilled, but the social graph isn't solely in messaging and follower connections, it's in space-making and exclusivity. While individual users can be coerced into centralizing, spaces are a much harder nut and are why little PhpBB forums persist even now. You can have all the users but not the spaces, and if you don't play nice with the spaces, adios.

I suspect Facebook are, at this point, culturally incapable of allowing you to just see what you've set to follow. As in, that four-panel gag meme that ends with someone being thrown out a window incapable.

The "Musko-cringian" empire is an unbelievably ridiculous gift, here. Some of the timing couldn't be better.

Now, even with that backdrop, it's quite likely "Threads" (ugh, ... marketroids) won't take off like wildfire. But, I think we're at something of a fork here. Either this will be the competition current incarnation Twitter needs to start turning things around, or Threads will capitalize on each future misstep, service outage / problem, etc.

Threads has a sort of balanced position, in terms of marketing / uptake. Absolutely not the multi-faceted "cachet" of Bluesky Social, rather, the opposite ... arguably even "less cool" than Twitter (was) ... But, it also has the low friction user sign on you mention, part of an ecosystem incredibly widely used (a winning formula in America, especially, is convenience - about the best marketing available, itself), plenty of technical heft behind it, etc.

It could easily displace Twitter, and I think more quickly than many might argue.

Give them some slack. Twitter wasn't fully polished two hours after initial release. You need to give them some time to fine tune their algos and come up with new features. My bet is they will soon develop an explore page similar to Twitter's, and will give users options to tailor their home feed.

I think yours is a very critical take for a company that pushed out an MVP two hours ago.

Is there a mute feature like on Twitter? I use that all the time.

They haven’t even gotten to the “push” part yet and they’re now over 4 million users.

I don't have a social media account, unless you include here. I certainly edited my browser scripts so I don't see many of the what I consider obnoxious influencers.

Twitter has maybe six months but certainly not twelve before going bankrupt. It's done for. I fully agree with the analysis at https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/the-slow-sad-death-of-twitt...

It's not that I disagree with the speculation, but none of it is backed up. User stats as well as revenue are private. When you put out a strong statement like "revenue is collapsing" you deliver it as fact, whilst it's guess work.

I'd link to it but it's behind a paywall.