Social-Media
Instagram has made a big change to Threads, and I, as the sole user of Threads, am sad.
Instagram has pushed out an update to the Threads app, and that's a big change. Although Threads has only allowed you to send close friends (i.e. accounts that you have added to your Instagram "Close Friends" list), you can now use it to send messages to any Instagram user. As the only planet Earth consumer of Threads, I am sad.
Okay, so I've exaggerated. I'm not the only user of Threads — some 220,000 people have been using the Instagram Threads app since last year. But that's less than 0.1 percent of Instagram's monthly active users, more than a billion. And it's not hard to see why Threads isn't that popular — it basically takes a few things you can do with Instagram and asks you to do it on a different app.
Instagram Threads app has basically become the Direct app reborn with the latest update that allows messages with anyone, not just close friends pic.twitter.com/5JwGDhlejd
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) October 6, 2020
But I'm using Threads because it just feels personal. It's the only messaging app where there's no junk, no small talk, no large group chats to mute and forget. It's just me, it's my best buds.
The app infers what you're doing based on your phone's position and behavior, and keeps your Close Friends up-to - date with features like "On the Go," "Out and About," "Chilling," and "Low Power." (Don't freak out — you can switch it off.) And you can send any Close Friend a picture or video by pressing a single button on the home screen through an interface that's eerily similar to Snapcha's.
Instagram update for its Threads app on iOS pic.twitter.com/oOsbCrcqZ9
— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) October 7, 2020
I understand why Instagram is making this move. The ability of any user to DM makes Threads more widely useful to people who do not use the Near Friends functionality. Facebook has also recently launched cross-platform messaging on Instagram and Messenger, adding some of Messenger's functionality to Instagram's DMs. Instagram says that cross-platform messaging will not be available for Threads, but demonstrates that the company is making an effort to merge its different services and attract more users.
