Instagram on Wednesday announced a new app called Threads for sharing text updates and joining public conversations.

Threads, Meta’s standalone Twitter competitor, is a text-based microblogging social media platform offering a new, separate space for real-time updates and public conversations.

Instagram Launches Its Twitter Competitor “Threads”

“Our vision with Threads is to take what Instagram does best and expand that to text, creating a positive and creative space to express your ideas,” the company wrote in a blog post.

Threads enable you to log in using your Instagram account, allowing easy connection to friends, creators, followers, public figures, or brands. Anyone under 16 (or under 18 in certain countries) will be defaulted into a private profile when they join the app.

Features such as screen reader support and AI-generated image descriptions already available on Instagram are also enabled on Threads.

Further, Threads allows you to post up to 500 characters long, including links, photos, and videos up to 5 minutes in length. You can also share your Threads post to your Instagram story or share via a link on any other platform you choose.

Additionally, your feed on Threads includes threads posted by people you follow and suggested content from new creators you haven’t discovered yet.

With Threads, you can control who can mention you or reply to you within Threads and also add hidden words to filter out replies to your threads that have specific words. You can unfollow, block, restrict, or report a profile on Threads. In addition, any accounts blocked on Instagram will be automatically blocked on Threads.

Instagram is working on making Threads compatible with ActivityPub, the open social networking protocol established by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). This would make it interoperable with other apps supporting the ActivityPub protocol, such as Mastodon and WordPress.

As far as safety is concerned, Instagram will enforce Instagram’s Community Guidelines on content and interactions in the app.

“Our vision is that people using compatible apps will be able to follow and interact with people on Threads without having a Threads account, and vice versa, ushering in a new era of diverse and interconnected networks,” Instagram added.

“Threads is Meta’s first app envisioned to be compatible with an open social networking protocol – we hope that by joining this fast-growing ecosystem of interoperable services, Threads will help people find their community, no matter what app they use.”

Threads app is now available for download on iOS and Android devices from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store in more than 100 countries.