If I implement Google oauth into my app, it doesn't make my app an extention of Google. It just reduces the friction of people making a new account for my app.
Even just having a few people automatically followed can make a difference, even if most people diverge quickly after joining.
Additionally, 90+% of my Threads feed is photos, so, like, what’s the point?
I’ve opened it a couple of times and scrolled for maybe 30 seconds and lost interest.
I’m sure if I put a little effort into it I could find more interesting accounts to follow, but at least in my experience the “bootstrapping” hasn’t really worked.
Plenty of good developer-focused content now, and they implemented a following-only feed. Worth having, for me so far.
I and half the people I know on Twitter are not owners of Instagram accounts. It's absurd to require Insta to login to Threads.
The account linking was a quick fix, the app was released early, and the accounts will not be forcibly linked later on. You won't need an Instagram account to sign up to Threads. But still, if you don't have one, just sign up to Instagram as you would Threads, and you already have your account made.
So what you claim to be a problem isn't a problem because you and every other prospective user knows how to create a Threads account.
Porting over the Instagram graph to Threads is literally how they created the network effect that made it the fastest growing app ever.
Engineerbrained.
I agree, but will that prevent the majority of the public from signing up? A bridge will collapse regardless of what the motorists think, but people being ignorant of Meta's misdeeds does mean that Meta's untrustworthiness won't—can't—factor into their decision regarding signups. Maybe Meta will make the news again with another scummy decision, and maybe that'll drive users away—but how many? I suspect it's a small fraction.
'Course, one might be able to make the argument about "the most important N% of users who create most of the content", who are also unusually savvy... I don't know empirical details here.
Perhaps but the login thing seems totally tangential to this..
Well, you could compared it to Instagram's previous Threads app, which no one used https://techcrunch.com/2021/11/17/instagram-will-shut-down-i...
But secondly, I'm skeptical that it's even fair to talk about Threads stats using the same measurements as any "new" app, since it's really an extension of Instagram. You don't make a new account for Threads, you just use your Instagram account. They are one in the same, the only difference being which app you use to access which features. It's most closely analogous to Facebook and the Messenger app - do you count the users of each of those separately?
(It's also funny how I get a noticeable amount of seemingly emotional downvotes to any comment critical of Threads or supportive of Twitter/Musk - you are giving away the plot.)