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How the new Threads app is made

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Re: How the new Threads app is made

#121

Post by [deleted] »

wmeredith wrote: post #55
troupo wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They are going head-to-head with one of the largest social networks Twitter has 450 million monthly active users at a generous guess. Facebook's MAU: 2.98 billion Instagram's MAU: 1 billion Twitter, is an (un)surprisingly small fry when it comes to social networks. Unlike most, Facebook actually knows how to build a social network, and grow it.

> Twitter, is an (un)surprisingly small fry when it comes to social networks. By active users, yes Twitter is smaller than many of the other big networks. But by influence, Twitter is one of, if not the biggest fish in the pond. @[username] is everywhere in advertising and news programs. People don't break news on Facebook and Instagram. There's a reason Musk and his backers paid $ 44 billion for Twitter, and it wasn…

[deleted]

Re: How the new Threads app is made

#122

Post by kenhwang »

vineyardmike wrote: post #112
hospitalJail wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook isnt going to be nice about this. They know they are in a strong position here. Expect an addicting algorithm that is fueled by ragebait (and if its anything like IG, coombait). The fact that it didn't release with an ability to time-sort tells you everything you need to know. Everyone knows how easy it is to sort by time, especially when stakes are low. Its anti-consumer from day 1. The surge in people are…

> The fact that it didn't release with an ability to time-sort tells you everything you need to know. They announced its coming. I’m guessing they just didn’t want anyone to see an empty feed on signup day.

You can tell they're having a lot of launch day backend pains. Push notifications are sometimes up to a day delayed. Follows don't stay followed, auto-follow on join doesn't seem to work at all. QTs don't show up properly half the time. Refreshing the feed takes forever, and you can tell when it fails to load your personalized feed, it just falls back on a generic feed with a bunch of random people. Even loading a profile page takes a noticeably long amount of time.

Re: How the new Threads app is made

#123

Post by Karrot_Kream »

hyperhopper wrote: post #113
yeeetz wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly I don't fuck with social media that much besides my private Instagram, but there's more to it than just viral marketing. It's a pretty smooth app that appeals to people like my 18-25-ish age that feels like Twitter has gotten super weird and toxic. The honeymoon effect won't last forever, but it has something that a lot of social media users are looking for.

But why didn't those users just go to mastodon?

Threads is polished in a way that Mastodon isn't. I'm part of a few Japanese subcultures and most of them couldn't make heads or tails of the Fediverse despite the existence of Misskey. Threads though? They signed up through Instagram and were posting in minutes. I really want Meta to commit to federation, even if existing Mastodon communities defederate so that techie weirdos like us can live their dreams of running custom clients and interfacing with regular folks (like XMPP federation with GChat back in the day.)

Re: How the new Threads app is made

#124

Post by LexiMax »

hyperhopper wrote: post #113
yeeetz wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly I don't fuck with social media that much besides my private Instagram, but there's more to it than just viral marketing. It's a pretty smooth app that appeals to people like my 18-25-ish age that feels like Twitter has gotten super weird and toxic. The honeymoon effect won't last forever, but it has something that a lot of social media users are looking for.

But why didn't those users just go to mastodon?

A good chunk of them did, and some of them stuck around. I've had an account going back to 2017, and my feed is far more active today than it was before Elon purchased the site.

Re: How the new Threads app is made

#125

Post by yeeetz »

Karrot_Kream wrote: post #123
hyperhopper wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But why didn't those users just go to mastodon?

Threads is polished in a way that Mastodon isn't. I'm part of a few Japanese subcultures and most of them couldn't make heads or tails of the Fediverse despite the existence of Misskey. Threads though? They signed up through Instagram and were posting in minutes. I really want Meta to commit to federation, even if existing Mastodon communities defederate so that techie weirdos like us can live their dreams of running…

Yeah, Twitter is super big in Japan for mainstream teen and young adult users in the 18-25 city student/young professional demographic. Same with Instagram. Mastodon adjacent stuff like Misskey, Pawoo, and Mstdn got the reputation for being for hosting weird, niche, or pretty much illegal content, and nobody really understands the point of Fediverse.

Re: How the new Threads app is made

#126

Post by [deleted] »

hyperhopper wrote: post #113
yeeetz wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly I don't fuck with social media that much besides my private Instagram, but there's more to it than just viral marketing. It's a pretty smooth app that appeals to people like my 18-25-ish age that feels like Twitter has gotten super weird and toxic. The honeymoon effect won't last forever, but it has something that a lot of social media users are looking for.

But why didn't those users just go to mastodon?

[deleted]

Re: How the new Threads app is made

#127

Post by explain »

PaulHoule wrote: post #116
cpeterso wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Barcelona" is the code name of the Threads project. The Threads Android app is called "com.instagram.barcelona".

Maybe they should have named it something other than "Threads", the other day it just got out that these guys https://threads.com/ have a trademark filing for "Threads" as a name for a communications service. If I picked out the right two screenshots you might have a hard time telling them apart https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=87522273&caseType=SERIAL_... and "Threads Group, Inc." is really the people behinds thre…

> "Threads Group, Inc." would be within their rights to make Meta change the name.

Meta's use of the term "Threads" for a communications service likely actually predates or at least rival's "Threads Group, Inc.".

Meta had an app called Threads until it was shut down in late 2021.

Re: How the new Threads app is made

#128

Post by jomteon »

Karrot_Kream wrote: post #123
hyperhopper wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But why didn't those users just go to mastodon?

Threads is polished in a way that Mastodon isn't. I'm part of a few Japanese subcultures and most of them couldn't make heads or tails of the Fediverse despite the existence of Misskey. Threads though? They signed up through Instagram and were posting in minutes. I really want Meta to commit to federation, even if existing Mastodon communities defederate so that techie weirdos like us can live their dreams of running…

Also, mastodon just isn't easy like twitter/reddit/insta is. There's hurdles you have to get past. It's to the degree that, despite being the target demo for masto, I still haven't really gotten into it. Too many hoops. Even a flippin' bbs seems to make more sense at this point

Re: How the new Threads app is made

#129

Post by runlaszlorun »

Gh0stRAT wrote: post #117
themitigating wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you slow clap at your last statement because you figured it all out? Because of Elon Musk Twitter has been in the news for months. That includes his impulsive decision to buy it, firing massive amounts of people, and to keep everyone focused on him a barrage of right wing themed tweets about hot button political topics. Of course the news media is reporting on this. Then a massive US tech company, whose founder h…

You forgot the literal billionaire cage match that Musk tried to initiate but then backed out of when it seemed like Zuck wasn't afraid to fight him. Seemed like everyone was talking about it for a couple of days…

Damn it… how did I possibly miss that story. Not exactly weighty news. But oh so entertaining.

Re: How the new Threads app is made

#130

Post by TheHappyOddish »

Karrot_Kream wrote: post #114
nicpottier wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a bit weird. I've been toying with all the various Twitter alternatives as they have had their 5 minutes of fame and Threads definitely feels different and like it might stick. That feels like very big news but not to HN I guess?

I think over time HN has become more like a lot of other tech communities; a bit ideological, zealous, and detached. Most of these groups have ingroups (the virtuous hackers) and outgroups (CIA, NSA, RIAA, MPAA, Microsoft, Big Tech, Social Media, techbros, billionaires, .) This is the kind of community you'll find in a lot of FSF mailing lists, Libera (formerly Freenode) channels, and Linux subreddits. Threads, being…

My less cynical viewpoint is that it just isn't that interesting.

It's a bare-bones Twitter clone made by Meta. There's no interesting new technology to discuss, no open source angle, no discussion on the company founder that hasn't been done 100 times.

HN has plenty of discussions about interesting Meta projects - Quest, React, the metaverse, financial discussions, etc. I just don't think there's much to grip people on this topic.

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