The new Meta alternative Twitter app “Chains” has appeared in some app stores

This is interesting timing, given the current restrictions on viewing tweets.

Yesterday, out of nowhere, Meta’s new Twitter-esque message board app — which will apparently be called Threads — appeared in the Google Play Store in some regions.

Personally, I don’t get how “Threads” is a name to go by, given that Meta actually launched and shut down a separate messaging app called Thread back in 2021. It seems likely to be anathema — but Meta seems to go along with it anyway.

As you can see in this promotional screenshot, shared by an app researcher Alessandro PaluzziThe new Meta app “Themes” will enable users to transfer their IG username to the new conversation-based platform, which essentially opens DM chats on a more public basis.

So it’s like Twitter, but with an IG Direct slant.

according to Play Store Description From the application:

Threads is where communities come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to what’s trending tomorrow. Whatever you’re interested in, you can follow and connect directly with your favorite creators and others who love the same things – or build a loyal following of your own. To share your ideas, opinions and creativity with the world.

Well, that’s a very brief description of Twitter, which is how Meta is promoting its new app.

Meta has been working on its text-based platform for some time, with the first reports emerging this past April that it was exploring “A decentralized social network for sharing text updates“.

The decentralization element now appears to be less considered, with Meta focusing instead on using the Instagram scale as a springboard for building a viable Twitter alternative, home to the many outcasts unhappy with Elon Musk’s changes to the app.

Which, as noted, may be about to hit a new peak, with Twitter implementing new limits on the number of tweets people can view, in an effort to combat data scraping tools.

If Twitter users who follow a trending topic — like, say, the war in Ukraine, or NBA free agency — are now swayed by these new frontiers, they can already be increasingly eager for a new conversation house — even though the new app doesn’t. It also appears to be already available, with the Play Store listing appearing in very few regions at this point (you can check for yourself that it’s active in your region at this link).

So why did it show up all of a sudden, with little fanfare, and on a long weekend at all times?

It could be a Play Store bug or bug making it viewable too early, or it could be limited testing by the Meta, as it moves to the next stage.

Either way, it now appears that a new Tweet alternative is very close.

Which could be a new battleground for Twitter and Meta, both literally and figuratively, as Twitter owner Elon Musk and Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg reportedly got involved in a cage match, which was sparked by an early discussion of the rival Meta app.

It reportedly can fight It is hosted in the Colosseum in Rome, with reports indicating that the Italian government inquired about hosting the match. Italy The Ministry of Culture denied it — but the battle itself could indeed rage on, as the two mega-billionaires are set to engage in a physical battle to prove…something.

This may just be window dressing, a publicity stunt, as Meta seeks to drink a milkshake on Twitter.

And with the broader shift towards DM conversations, rather than feed posting, now might be the time for a new iteration of threads – though again, I still worry that launching a new app with the same name is a strategic misstep that’s doomed from the start.