Instagram's Threads briefly went live on the web ahead of launch

Meta’s Twitter competitor, Instagram Threads, seems to have made its web interface available for exploration ahead of time. It offers a sneak peek into the upcoming Threads app, set to launch on iOS on Thursday and presumably Android too, according to The Verge. Mark Zuckerberg, Founder and CEO of Meta, has created his first thread using the app, and numerous other prominent brands and creators, such as Netflix, Gary Vee, and Instagram, have also been granted early access to this platform.

“Let’s do this. Welcome to Threads,” Zuckerburg posted on Threads.

According to the report, for the time being, the web interface for viewing threads is fairly basic, with options to like, comment, repost, and share — all of which prompt you to download the mobile app. Similar to Twitter, users can view an account’s main posts in one section and the entire reply history in another. If users are in an unsupported country, such as markets in the EU, they can only view threads right now.

Adam Mosseri, Instagram’s CEO, has nearly 2,500 followers and Zuckerberg has less than 2,000, so it’s safe to say that Threads early access has been provided to only a few thousand testers, the report mentioned.

Threads is originally scheduled to launch on July 6, according to an App Store listing for the application. In addition to its listing on the iPhone marketplace, Threads briefly showed up on the Google Play Store last week with screenshots and details similar to what the App Store listing shows now. Moreover, some users claim to have seen a different listing for Threads on Google Play that is still live but does not have a launch date mentioned. That means the company is planning to introduce Threads’ Android app around the same time.

— Written with inputs from IANS