Nothing has driven fast, smart, global conversations like Twitter for the past decade and change. Shifting winds, however, are now pointing millions away from Elon Musk’s platform - which may or may not actually fully becomeX- and over toward Mark Zuckerberg’sThreads.
Text exchanges are the core focus on both platforms, but the gap is certainly wider regarding richer features. Let’s take a quick look at the differences.
We should acknowledge that Twitter will have the upper hand over Threads on paper, but most of this advantage can be attributed to age more than anything else. You can very much expectglitches and bugsto appear and get smoothed over along the way. Furthermore, with the situation remaining highly changeable in 2023, some of the features we mention here might not actually be in place as of when you’re reading this. Pocket-lint may offer coverage as events warrant, so keep a bookmark with us for updates.
What features do Threads and Twitter share?
In the social media market, both mainly trade in text posts. You can attach photos, GIFs, and videos to your tweet or thread, but we’re mainly talking about good ol' script. You can chain up multiple posts at once to get your points across. You populate your home screen with posts by following people.
Your home screen on Twitter has two feeds: an algorithm-driven one called “For you” showing tweets ostensibly most relevant to you and a straight chronological feed called “Following.” Threads initially just had a “For you” feed similar in name and function to Twitter’s, but it has since added a “Following” feed, too.
Both networks make it easy to browse posts in other languages with built-in translation features.
You can “like” or “favorite” other users' posts as well as your own by selecting the heart icon underneath each post. You can also “repost” or “retweet” posts you and others have made by hitting the icon with the cycling arrows on them. If you want to add further comment or some extra media to your repost or retweet, that’s called a “quote posts” or “quote tweet.”
you may prevent certain people from seeing your posts or choose to mute posts from certain people on Twitter and Threads. You can also report other users if you think they’ve violated platform rules. You can limit who can reply to your posts on either platform - options include everyone, people you follow, and only people you mention.
Twitter has long had a verified user program that Meta, the owner of Instagram, which runs Threads,has only recently booted up. Currently, you can pay $8 per month on Twitter as part of Twitter Blue or $14.99 per month on Instagram to get a checkmark badge on your profile that ostensibly implies you are who you say you are.
What are the major differences between Twitter and Threads?
Practically too much to list in this article, honestly. Musk isn’t afraid to issue radical directives that can immediately impact how people use Twitter. We’ll focus on the biggies at this moment.
The most glaring omission on the part of Threads at this point isthe lack of a full-fledged web client. you’re able to only view posts when visiting the threads.net domain. Twitter.com allows for full interactions - i.e., liking and retweeting. As of late July, we’ve still yet to hear any official developments on this matter. That said, Meta can’t possibly ignore all the complaints and demands piling up.
Free users are given a 240-character limit per post on Twitter, while Thread users get 500. Similarly, videos are limited to 512MB and up to 2 minutes, 20 seconds on Twitter, while Threads bumps the ceiling up to 5 minutes.
Hashtags have been quintessential to the Twitter experience for the longest time. They let you track posts related to a trend that don’t necessarily use any vernacular or keywords associated with it. On the other hand, Meta has framed Threads as a more personalized platform with less focus on global conversations or news. you may put a pound sign before a word, but it won’t do what a hashtag does on Twitter.
Other major features that Twitter is holding above Threads are:
Twitter has buying and placement systems for advertising on its network. Threads may very well have such systems soon, but that is not the case right now. Neither is it the case that Threads has an API that lets third-party developers create their own apps that work with data from the Threads platform. Twitter does have user data APIs, but your level of access will depend on how much you pay -in some cases, it’s as much as $5,000 per month.
