Meta set to take on Twitter with rival app called Threads

The announcement of the social media app Threads is displayed in Apple's App Store. Photo / AP

Meta is poised to unveil a new app that appears to mimic Twitter — a direct challenge to the social media platform owned by Elon Musk.

A listing for the app, called Threads, appeared on Apple’s App Store, indicating it would debut as early as Thursday. It is billed as a “text-based conversation app” that is linked to Instagram, with the listing teasing a Twitter-like microblogging experience.

“Threads is where communities come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to what’ll be trending tomorrow,” it said.

Instagram users will be able to keep their user names and follow the same accounts on the new app, according to screenshots displayed on the App Store listing. Meta declined to comment on the app.

Musk replied “yeah” to a tweet from Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey saying, “All your Threads are belong to us”, along with a screenshot from the App Store’s privacy section showing what personal information might be collected by the new Meta app.

Threads could be the latest headache for Musk, who acquired Twitter last year for US$44 billion and has been making changes to the platform that have unnerved advertisers and turned off users.

In the latest such tweak, Twitter said Monday that it will require users to be verified before they can use the online dashboard TweetDeck. The new policy takes effect in 30 days and appears to be aimed at raising extra revenue because users need to pay to have their accounts verified under Musk’s changes.

TweetDeck is popular with companies and news organisations, allowing users to manage multiple Twitter accounts.

Twitter is already facing backlash after Musk announced that Twitter has limited the number of tweets users can view each day — restrictions that the billionaire Tesla CEO described as an attempt to stop unauthorised scraping of potentially valuable data.

Musk’s rivalry with Meta Platforms also could end up spilling over into real life. In an online exchange between Musk and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the two tech billionaires seemingly agreed to a cage match face-off, though it’s unclear if they will actually make it to the ring.