As of today, Threads, Instagram’s Twitter alternative, is available as a logged-in web experience — but only for some users.
A representative for Threads told Mashable that “we’ll begin rolling out the feature over the next few days,” with no further details around who is getting access and when. You can try your luck right now at threads.net.
The new desktop experience enables users to create, view, and interact with posts on their feed on desktop, and Threads promises that more functionality is on the way in the next few weeks.
This is the platform’s next step in potentially overtaking X, which is struggling to court advertisers as it proves unable to curtail offensive content on the platform in addition to suffering from its rebrand from Twitter.
A web version of Threads has been highly anticipated by current and lapsed Threads users, and is just one of several new features added to the platform in recent weeks.
It’s unclear how many desktop users Threads plans to have, but it’s safe to say that the option to access the platform from a computer will entice those users (like me) who abhor posting from their phones.
The Threads mobile app has been downloaded more than 150 million times since its Jul. 5 launch. But the long term success of Threads will come down to how often people use it, not just how many people have the app on their phone.
In the arena, Threads posts less impressive numbers. A July report from data analytics company Similarweb showed that the number of daily active users on Threads dropped from 49 million to 23.6 million in a single week, between Jul. 7 and Jul. 14.
