If I had a dollar every time Meta copied its rival and yelled “innovation,” I could probably buy another new chain for Mark Zuckerberg. This time, Threads is leaning into Bluesky’s Starter Packs.
There was Instagram Stories, a rip off of Snapchat. There was Reels, a rip off of TikTok. There was Threads, a rip off of Twitter. Then there were smaller updates, like adding notes, templates, and music to posts, which also copied features already available on other apps. Social media is stuck in an innovation loop that, unfortunately, works. The latest in the copycat strategy? Threads wants to get in on Bluesky’s growth.
Bluesky has had a monumental few weeks, and is looking like it might be the Twitter alternative we’ve been searching for since Elon Musk took over the company and turned it into the mush that is X. Journalist David Packman posted in Bluesky that “Mark Zuckerberg is genuinely spooked by the rapid growth of Bluesky.”
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And it appears that, in an attempt to slow the momentum behind Bluesky’s growth, Threads is developing a feature similar to Bluesky’s “Starter Packs,” TechCrunch reported. Starter Packs are a list of users you might want to follow to get your feed started, grouped together by interests. Like, for instance, a digital culture starter pack or a starter pack full of Twitch code strimmers.
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Threads is built into Instagram’s platform, so most of your follows or followers start out mirroring your Instagram reach. So Threads doesn’t necessarily need starter packs to get you started — but if a feature works for someone else, you bet Meta is going to try it out on their user base, too.
