Introduction:
Today, Instagram Threads, Meta’s competitor for X, introduced support for polls and GIFs, emulating a few more X features. The upgrade for the new app follows quickly after prior releases that supported a web version with a (free) edit button, allowing users to switch profiles, full-text search capabilities, a chronological feed, voice posts, and more. In a call with investors on Wednesday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg hinted that Threads would be Meta’s next billion-user app due to its quick uptake.
Considering that Zuckerberg also stated that Threads currently has less than 100 million monthly active users, those estimates are slightly optimistic. Furthermore, they ignore the unexpected “stickiness” factor of X, which, despite X’s decline on other metrics like overall daily active usage, monthly usage, and website traffic, has managed to hold onto its U.S. power users and increase the amount of time spent by its daily active users, according to at least one report.
Threads are rushing to add features that Twitter users have been accustomed to in an attempt to find new methods to captivate and engage users.
Because they give users who are less active posters on Twitter the chance to express their opinions and be heard, polls, in particular, have been a well-liked method of increasing engagement on the platform. By posting polls, users can get more followers and a broad sense of public opinion without conducting more official surveys.
In addition, they can be utilized for lighthearted purposes, such as inquiring about personal preferences like meal or movie choices. In fact, since the acquisition, Elon Musk, the owner of X, has frequently used polls to influence decisions about the company’s course, such as whether to remove himself from the position of CEO, grant amnesty to banned accounts, or revive Vine, the brief video platform that Twitter discontinued in 2016.
Threads isn’t Dead and it Now Has Polls and GIFs Too:
Threads isn’t Dead and it Now Has Polls and GIFs Too [Source of Image: Techcrunch.com]
On Threads, polls are available for 24 hours, and you have the same control over who can react to a survey as you do over who can reply to a post.
While younger generations may now find GIFs to be “cringe,” GIFs are still attractive to most online users. Even Meta purchased the GIF search engine Giphy for $400 million in 2020, but the U.K. competition authority’s antitrust order compelled it to be sold. In exchange for the website, Shutterstock paid a mere $53 million for the company. Unsurprisingly, Giphy powers Threads’ new GIFs feature.
Although polls and GIFs aren’t the most important features to add to Threads’ Twitter clone, they are characteristics that elevate the program over specific other potential competitors of X, such as the startup Bluesky, which does not currently support GIFs. (However, a few of its outside clients do.) Though not yet available online, the functionalities seem accessible through the Threads mobile app.
Of course, duplicating X’s features—including audio and video calls—is not all that Threads would need to achieve to become a more serious rival. X is still a popular destination for trend discovery and a real-time news source.
Although Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri has stated that Threads won’t spread the word about news on the network, during the company’s struggle with X, Threads was seen working on a Trending Topics feature that would give the site a more Twitter-like feel. However, it’s unclear if or when that feature will be available to the public.
