Meta has released Threads, the so-called Twitter-killer. We were among the first to try it. Here’s what we thought.

It’s been a long time since we all signed up for Twitter. But for many users, the experience has been one of hardship. From bullying to the open sewer of political venom and anonymous trolls.

Twitter has seen the best and worst of social media.

So along comes Mark Zuckerberg from Meta to fix what Elon Musk seemingly can’t.

We all want the town square, but does Twitter prove why we can’t have nice things?

The signup

Singing up was really simple. I think we’ve all become sick of choosing a catchy username, deciding on a cryptic password (and where to store it), as well as the obligatory profile photo (we’re not getting any younger here).

I remember that original Twitter profile pic. The innocence!

But the Meta situation is seamless, taking my user data from Instagram and even suggesting my friends. Turns out they were already following me before I had even created a username!

The experience

The user experience is ok. Just ok, and needs a lot of work. It’s hard to immediately identify how to post, or Thread (is that what we’re calling it). Everything looks very basic so far.

And one of the first things I noticed was that real people were using it, not just profiles of news media companies, like those that fill my Twitter feed.

Though is this an early sign that I’m going to have to go on a muting spree all over again to filter out the nonsense of thought-tweeting/threading?

There’s also more text than photos and videos so far, and I haven’t yet endured the experience of uploading a video or working out the character limit.

The limitations

It took me a while to work out how to set up a corporate profile, not just a personal profile. For those of us that manage social media channels, it’s more cumbersome than Twitter.

There also doesn’t seem to be a desktop app, which makes it hard for corporate and office use. We aren’t all attached to our iPhones, especially at work.

One of the best things about Twitter is monitoring it during breaking news. That will be the real test for Threads. When something big happens, will we still turn to Twitter? Or will Threading become the new town square?

But yes, you will find Ticker News on Threads.