A number of users on Google’s Android platform noticed over the weekend that a brand new application with the name “Threads” had been published on the Google Play app store. A post on the app listing was made on July 1 by Alessandro Paluzzi, an Italian mobile developer. Paluzzi is known for reverse engineering the Instagram code in order to uncover internal testing.

Following months of speculation, there is a possibility that a competitor to Instagram’s Twitter feature may soon be made available in the app store.

It would seem that a link to the desktop version of the Google Play app store is only accessible in some European nations, such as Germany, Italy, France, and Spain.

Android users get Instagram’s “Threads” app

On the Google Play Store, Instagram has listed its Threads app. The app has its own website with images and information on how it will function. Notably, the program was also discovered with identical data on Apple’s App Store. Threads will compete directly with Twitter, which is a significant shift from Instagram’s approach of sharing photographs and short films.

People will be able to use the same identities and have access to their whole network of Instagram followers thanks to the extensive connection with Instagram. Users of the Threads app will be able to follow the same profiles that they do on Instagram.

According to the Threads description, an app is a place “where communities come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to what’ll be trending tomorrow.” Whatever your interests are, you may follow and connect with your favorite artists and those who share your passion — or establish your own devoted following to share your thoughts, views, and creativity with the world.”

Meta’s strategic move to capture Twitter users

Alex Heath of The Verge reported on leaked product images and information from a meeting with Chris Cox, chief product officer of Meta, in June. The article claims that the software has been in development since January.

Like its rivals Bluesky and Mastodon, Threads will include a decentralized system. Additionally, Oprah and other influencers are apparently being sought after by Instagram to sign up as early users of the Twitter-like service.

In a Broadcast Channel collaboration session with Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri in May, Mark Zuckerberg gave a voice note that said, “No top-secret text apps that you want to talk about today?” to hint at the release of the app. According to a Platformer article from March, Mosseri is in charge of the Threads debut.

The new Threads app from Instagram differs from the previous version of the same-named app, which was introduced in 2019 as a messaging tool before being discontinued in 2021.

According to Eric Wei, a former Instagram product manager, the Meta-owned platform has a history of releasing short-lived standalone applications, as he recently explained to Insider.

Twitter is also making big changes to TweetDeck, a tool that many writers and people who work in social media use. This comes soon after the app started to break, supposedly because scrapers were looking for data to feed AI models.

And in about a month, TweetDeck will start costing money. During the holiday weekend, a lot of Twitter users tried to switch to Bluesky, but that service had to stop new user signups for more than a day to fix problems caused by the flood of people using the app. The CEO of Mastodon, on the other hand, says he is doing well.

Featured image credit: swipeline