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Instagram’s new “themes” app is the latest contender for the Twitter throne, especially after the launch of the Birds app. Themes was launched on July 6th and has surpassed 100 million users in record time. If you’ve tried both platforms, you’ll notice that Thread is a much lighter and simpler version of Twitter. While it has no ads at all, it also skips some key features like hashtags and post search. This is understandable considering that the platform is still in its infancy. But threads still have some perks that Twitter doesn’t, and today we’re taking a look.
More pictures or not
Like the main Instagram app, Themes allows you to upload up to 10 photos and videos per post. Threads displays them in a neat horizontal collage, letting you cram more into a single post. Meanwhile, Twitter limits media per post to just 4, displaying them as a 2×2 collage.
Lets you restrict profiles
If you want to take a break from someone on social media without them knowing, blocking or unfollowing them may not be the best option. Instagram provides a middle ground between muting someone and blocking them in a process called “limiting.”
“When you restrict someone, you will not receive any other notifications about that person including if they like, reply to, repost or quote your content,” says Thread. Twitter doesn’t offer a feature like this right now, though you can still manually mute people so they don’t appear on your timeline.
Reminders to take a break
Take a break on the strings. (candid photo)
Social media is designed to be addictive with endless scrolling feeds and microblogging platforms like Threads and Twitter are no different. However, the threads may be a step forward in curbing the ill-fated scroll. It comes with a feature called “Break” which users can access via their account settings in the app. With it, you can set reminders to take a break after every 10, 20, or 30 minutes you spend in the app. Twitter lacks a feature like this at the moment.
Option to pause notifications
Pause all notifications feature on threads. (candid photo)
Notifications can be annoying at times, more so on threads if you’ve just created an account. To address this, threads allow users to pause notifications for specific periods of time. You can pause notifications for up to 8 hours if they’re too annoying. Twitter doesn’t offer a feature like this but you can always turn off app notifications from your phone’s settings, although you’ll have to manually turn them back on if you want to.
Add posts directly to your Instagram Story
Another obvious advantage of linking to Instagram is the ability to directly post your threads or other people’s messages as Instagram stories, which is very useful for sharing memes. On Twitter, you have to use the old fashioned way of taking a screenshot and then posting it to your story.
It’s easy to sign up
Themes allow you to register with the click of a button and go as far as importing your username, bio, followers, and other data from Instagram – signing up has never been so easy. This is an obvious advantage of being a slice of Instagram. Meanwhile, the easiest way to sign up for Twitter is through your Google or Apple account.
More goodies on the way
In a post titled “Themes” last week, Adam Mosseri, CEO of Instagram, promised that several “obviously missing features” that will help the app better compete with Twitter will be added soon. These include a timeline showing posts from people you follow, a button to edit posts, and the ability to search for posts. The ability to edit posts would be a particularly important feature and could be a big hit for Twitter since Twitter has restricted it to paid Blue subscribers only. However, it cannot be denied that as it stands, Twitter has a huge advantage over threads… it’s not even close.
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