Twitter became X, and no, they are not the same. Twitter was not always a perfect platform, but it has gotten worse since Elon Musk’s arrival. The platform is full of hate, some bad vibes, crypto bros, scams with Arguiñano as the protagonist, NFTs, stolen dog and cat memes, and the occasional interesting tweet. But it’s still not easy to get out of there. I tried Mastodon, I tried Bluesky. All the alternatives were insufficient for me.

Then came Threads, the “Twitter of Instagram” (as it will forever be known), and I loved it. And here I am a year later with over 175 million users. That’s been my experience.

Oh, TwitterTwitter has become a game since the arrival of Elon Musk pay to win. Do you want access? Pay. Do you want features? Pay. Do you want people to know that you are really you? Pay. The final straw will be paying to be able to publish and continue using the tools you previously had for free to create the content that feeds the platform in exchange for the crumbs you can earn with Twitter Premium (unless you are Mr. . Monster). And be careful, even if you pay a premium of around ten euros per month, you still see ads.

Verification has also been dealt a major blow. Not because having a blue badge on your profile is of the slightest importance, but because it is not the user’s job to verify their identity. I know it is mine. If a social network prides itself on having real users, it is its job, and its job alone, to verify that those users are real. Paying to be able to say “Hey, this is my profile” is doing the platform’s job. And not even that, because on Twitter verification now only serves to know that a profile is posting viral memes to earn a few euros.

Topics, a little oasis. There were alternatives, but let’s be clear: Mastodon is used by very few people, and Bluesky, which led the way, is also very few. But the ropes came strong. With some privacy glitches that delayed its arrival in the European Union, and evidence that it was rushed to avoid losing momentum from the negative reactions to X, but it was there as a viable alternative.

It started regularly. The app was missing a few quirks, and the web client could be improved greatly. Also, “For You” was terrible. It’s not a panacea for now, but we’ll get to that later. But Threads does offer and delivers what a social network focused on text and interaction should: lots of characters (500 to be exact), uploading up to ten photos, videos, polls, GIFs, and hashtags. It doesn’t have much more to be a Twitter alternative, and it doesn’t need more.

It’s clear that Meta is working on the app and they’re betting on it. The app is updated very frequently, the developers and product managers have excellent communication with the community, and it’s slowly improving. It’s nothing like what Threads was a year ago, and it’s always a pleasure to see a platform grow and evolve.

What is it like to live on Threads?. While there are always certain people who want to annoy, or whose reading comprehension skills aren’t up to snuff with irony or sarcasm, there’s a pretty good atmosphere on Threads. It seems like users are more willing to talk and interact in a friendly way, which makes sense considering Threads was born out of Instagram, which is clearly pure and simple interaction.

Threads has the advantage of being integrated with Instagram: people who follow us on Instagram automatically follow us on Threads. This allows for less intrusive communication than private messages. Being able to respond to a thread publicly with text, knowing that the creator is trying to engage and that other users are engaging with each other, invites you to do so. You don’t need to create a community. The community is already created and you can interact publicly from the very first minute, not through direct messages. Threads doesn’t actually have direct messages.

Topics also seem to reward content that aims to spark conversation, share interesting facts, learn, and be used for entertainment. In other words, it aims to bring the Instagram experience to text, which makes for healthier interactions. And did I mention it doesn’t have ads? Yes, it doesn’t, but I have no proof and I have no doubt it will eventually come.

Contents. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from being on Threads, it’s that it’s a social network focused on conversation and discovery. It’s not a platform where you post links to news or products, but rather to help you discover people with similar interests. For me, for example, I get a lot of content around video games, manga, anime, and technology. And that’s been tough because the algorithm that governs “For You” is a little bit… that way.

This “For You” is not for me. If you’re on TikTok, try one thing: like a post that doesn’t interest you. Like a video of someone cleaning their carpets, for example. You’ll quickly see how the algorithm now assumes you want to watch videos of people cleaning their carpets. Well, Threads’ “For You” is the same or worse. Don’t you dare accidentally ‘like’ a thread or browse a profile about a topic you’re not interested in, because then you’ll be inundated with similar content.

Without going any further, I recently made the mistake of looking at a profile on social media that talked about content strategies, and my “For You” post was full of people either bragging about being an influencer or talking about what it means to be an influencer or the followers you gain with a viral post. A timely interaction is another thing for that interaction to show interest.

There will always be people who are ready to do anything for a few likes | Capture: Xataka

On the other hand, there are many profiles that try to grab attention by copying and pasting viral topics or topics translated from English, which are typical ‘like’ traps. A few days ago, there was a practice that added “see more…” at the end of posts to trick people into clicking on the post, thus artificially increasing retention. When it comes to copying content, there are times when it makes you cry.

Solution? Swipe left. What’s this for? To tell threads that you’re not interested in these types of posts. By combining this with some good “likes”, we can tame the “For You” phrase and make the experience much less cumbersome. And if “For You” doesn’t interest you in the slightest, it’s always good to know that there’s a chronologically sorted feed where you can only see content from people you follow as it’s being published.

Things I miss about Twitter. The first is a proper hashtag system. There are no hashtags on Threads, instead there are themes. There is no #OnePiece hashtag, but there is a topic called “One Piece”. That’s complicated to keep track of and doesn’t look very good when you add it to your posts. The second thing is derived from the first: a list of Trending Topics. Right now, the “Explore” tab is little more than a user search engine. There’s no doubt that there’s a list of current topics there, and they’re working on it.

Finally, I miss the media presence. One of the keys to Twitter is that it lets you follow a topic in real time, and that’s more sophisticated on Threads. Until relatively recently, there wasn’t an API that media outlets could integrate to automatically post on Threads, but now that it’s there, it’s only a matter of time before auto-publishing platforms like IFTTT or Buffer add support. That, along with a more intuitive hashtag system, will make Threads my social network.

The problem is that when there is a link, the reach of publications is greatly reduced, and the media publish on social networks to generate traffic, so there is some work to be done in this sense.

In short. Threads allowed me to remove Twitter from my phone and add it to my sacred app platform. I think I found the Meta platform to be a good place to post my stuff and the data shows it is growing, even bigger when it is fully integrated with Fediverso. It is not a perfect social network but the prospects are good.

Although there will never be a social network like Tuenti.

Please let Tuenti come back.

Pictures | Xataka

In Xataka | We are ashamed of the world, we are losing the internet