While Twitter took two years to reach 1 million users, Threads, the new social network from Meta (formerly Facebook), reached more than 100 million in the first week.
While the explosion of Threads in its launch week augurs well for the future, the coming months will determine whether it manages to compete with or dethrone Twitter.
We have to wait for now, but what is certain is that you are interested in knowing the main differences between these two social networks, which also have much in common.
Without further ado, let’s get started!
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Instagram Threads vs Twitter: Main differences
The two social networks have very marked differences, even though they are similar in many respects.
1. Features
It is impossible to speak at any time as definitive characteristics between the two, as both are likely to change and evolve over the next few years.
In fact, Threads is too new a social network to believe that it will be like this forever, but on the other hand, Twitter is also changing a lot since Elon Musk’s purchase of the social network.
The latest in the former social network of the little bird is that there is no longer the logo with the bird, and now it’s just an X.
That said, some features distinguish them now, some of which we will go into in more detail below.
Both Twitter and Threads show a general section where you will see the publications shared by the community. Both written content, such as images or videos.
You can react with a like, share it or send it to other networks in the case of Threads.
The latter even allows you to publish it as an Instagram story or tweet it on your Twitter profile.
Crazy, isn’t it?
Also, in Threads, you can follow users, have your followers, and have your own private or public account.
So far, there are no significant differences, but nevertheless, there are, and they follow.
A. Length of publication
Historically, Twitter only allowed posts of up to 140 characters, which was increased to 280 years later.
Today it allows up to 10,000 characters but only for verified accounts with the blue check.
In fact, Twitter threads are still used today by all those accounts that do not have Twitter Blue and even by those that do.
This is due to a form of publishing that is already mythical on Twitter and continues to be one of the main strategies to generate interaction in the community.
In the case of Threads, it is possible to write up to 500 characters, which is not an unattainable amount, so it aims to maintain a similar style to the initial Twitter with relatively short and spontaneous publications.
In terms of media, this network allows up to 10 images, compared to 4 on Twitter, while videos can be up to 5 minutes and 2:20 minutes, respectively.
However, if you pay for Twitter Blue, you can upload videos of up to 1 hour.
B. ¿Can you edit posts on Threads?
Another essential difference between both platforms is that Threads does not allow you to edit your posts.
On Twitter, it is possible, but only if you have Twitter Blue in your profile.
Therefore, if you are a non-subscriber, you will have to delete the tweet and do it again so that you can correct the spelling mistake or add the image you missed.
C. DM’s
On Twitter, you can chat with other users through Direct Message, better known as DM.
This functionality does not exist in Threads, and although you can chat through Instagram, it is not the same since you will not necessarily have the same followers or followers in both social networks.
This feature may be added in the future, but for now, it is a big must (or not) on Zuckerberg’s part.
D. Hashtags and trends
The hashtag is one of the foundational pieces of Twitter.
Although its use seems to have decreased, it is still a fundamental part of the Twitter atmosphere.
Trends are still the reason why millions of users stay on Twitter, as there is no other social network for getting information, keeping up with the latest gossip, or debating with other users on randoms and not so randoms that can compete with this social network.
There are no trends or hashtags in Threads.
You will be able to browse directly, and who knows what you might find.
Although the algorithm is usually pretty accurate in your preferences, or at least that’s what it seems in our first impressions.
E. Advertising
Something that stands out in Threads and maintains the primitive philosophy of Facebook is that there are no advertisements on the platform.
Something that did not exist at the beginning of Facebook until Zuckerberg had to give up before the benefits of this monetization.
Twitter does have advertising through Twitter Ads, although it must be admitted that it does not work well, nor is it bombardments of ads like Instagram, YouTube or Facebook.
2. Performance
In addition to the extraordinary number of users that Instagram Threads achieved in 5 days, other points seem to be the winner, at least so far, in terms of interaction with the new social network.
According to Neil Patel’s study on Twitter and Threads, after analyzing more than 300 accounts, he obtained results highlighting the greater interaction per post and number of followers in both networks.
According to his study, posts on Threads generated an average of 31.4 likes against 4.9 on Elon Musk’s social network.
Comments were also higher on Threads, at a ratio of 4.3 vs. 0.4 per post.
As for likes per follower, the average was 0.41% on Threads and just 0.015% on Twitter, and finally, comments were 0.056% vs 0.001%, respectively.
Are these numbers definitive?
Of course, they are not.
It is still too early to take these numbers as definitive, especially considering that it is a new social network and the enthusiasm is still very present.
Shortly we will be able to know if Threads maintains this engagement so superior to Twitter or if it starts a logical decrease when the novelty ends.
Conclusions
This article reviews the main differences and features between Twitter and its new archrival, Threads.
Although it is a somewhat uneven competition, since we are talking about a social network that is more than 16 years old with one that is just taking its first steps, it seems that Threads is breaking all records. It may soon position itself as an extraordinary competition for Twitter.
As for the main differences that exist, they could be defined in that Musk’s social network allows you to follow trends. At the same time, Threads only shows your publications without any specific user filter.
There are neither private messages nor hashtags in this new social network nor the possibility of editing posts.
However, Threads has some interesting advantages over Twitter.
One of them is that there are no ads, and the limit of characters, images and videos is higher than on Twitter, except for users with Twitter Blue.
In this aspect, all Threads users have the same features, and there is no paid subscription, at least so far.
And so much for the comparison between the two social networks.
Do you have a profile on both? What are your impressions of Threads?