After first teasing its text-based app back in March, it looks like Instagram is finally set to release its Twitter competitor on July 6th.
Instagram describes Threads as a “text-based conversation app,” calling it a place for “communities [to] come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to what’ll be trending tomorrow.”
Social media sleuths first spotted the Threads app in Apple’s App Store, but Instagram has also hidden other clues around the app.
App researcher Alessandro Paluzzi pointed out that typing “threads” (or a few other keywords associated with the app’s launch) into Instagram’s search bar will generate a ticket emoji 🎟️ in the search bar.
Open #Instagram, go to the Explore page and type in the search box one of the following terms:
saymore, p92, ticket, 1992 or thread 👀 pic.twitter.com/EjqLdbQ7l8
— Alessandro Paluzzi (@alex193a) July 4, 2023
Tap that ticket, and you’ll see a spinning ticket that shows the Threads logo, your username, and a launch date and time. There’s also a Get Threads link at the bottom of the screen.
Tap the Get Threads button, and iOS users will be taken to the App Store to sign up to be notified when the app is released.
(It looks like the app is also available in the Google Play store, but I can’t confirm the process is the same.)
Adam Mosseri has also shared a poll in his broadcast channel. In it, the Instagram head seems to be gauging interest — and creating buzz — for the new app.
The Threads launch comes as Twitter restricts how much content users can view per day.
This isn’t the first time that Instagram has launched an independent app. IGTV premiered as a standalone app in 2018 before being folded back into Instagram in 2021.
Psst: Try our free Instagram Threads Generator.