Instagram will shut down its companion app Threads by year end (2021)
techcrunch.com
techcrunch.com
For people that come straight to the comments – Threads was also what Instagram called a standalone messaging app that they introduced in 2019 and never took off. They shut it down at the end of 2021, which is what this article references.
Apparently they've re-designed it a bit (or started over from scratch) to turn it into a Twitter competitor now that Twitter is a bit... turbulent, and are relaunching in a few days (which is currently being discussed on HN here[1]).
Might've been better to just start with a fresh name rather than resuscitating a brand that has already failed once, but what do I know?
I’d say the general public don’t know or care about the failed version but will find it easy to try the new one. This is probably the biggest threat to Bluesky gaining tracktion. At least in the medium term.
The name is pretty good too. Instantly conveys it’s purpose.
BUT, we shouldn't knock them for trying; that's what startups are all about, right?
I am so conflicted about this sentiment. On the one hand, I’m a fan of competition. On another, I dislike the company that is (re-?)entering the market.
I guess I just wish an actual start up were coming in, but I guess that era is over. Consolidation has been successful, and now we’re in this weird world where 5-10 giant megacorps run everything we engage with.
Also mastodon isn’t exactly a Silicon Valley startup but they have created the only financially sustainable social network which is a feat in its own right
Alas it didn't work out.
It's hard to remember how good it was, I remember it being better than Slack, Teams and Discord are now. But maybe that's a false memory.
The simultaneous editing became integrated into Google Docs than in MS Office but I feel like neither really reproduced the magic of Wave. IMO the key ingredient was the chat format: you could go directly from messaging to co-authoring without having to like setup a google doc or send a sharepoint link etc. and then you could keep messaging in the same window.
I guess Notion is the modern equivalent? I've gotten burned on hosted notes products too much at this point though.
Protocols like ActivityPub do not come even close.
and that's why it was shut down. It can make no money if it accomplishes its goal perfectly with no obvious way to insert ads.
It's generally very hard for me to tell whether a social media app is popular, I can't even keep track of which apps exist anymore, apparently.