Instagram’s Twitter competitor, Threads, briefly went live on the web

Instagram’s new Threads app, a Twitter competitor, isn’t supposed to launch until July 6th, but the web interface went live for a few hours today for everyone to explore. It provided an early look at what to expect from the full Threads app that will launch on iOS tomorrow — and presumably Android, too.

Meta briefly made Threads available on the web before pulling profiles offline a few hours later. The Verge was able to access Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s first thread (is that what we call them?!) using the web app, and many other brands and creators including Netflix, Gary Vee, and Instagram.

The web interface is fairly basic right now for viewing threads, with options to like, comment, repost, and share — all prompting you to download the mobile app for the time being. If you’re in an unsupported country, like markets in the EU, then you’ll only be able to view threads right now. Much like Twitter, you can view an account’s main posts in one section and the full reply history in another.

The head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, already has nearly 2,500 followers, and Zuckerberg has less than 2,000, so it’s safe to say that early Threads access has only been provided to a few thousand testers so far. Alessandro Paluzzi has discovered some of the brands and creators that got early access.

Fediverse integration won’t be available immediately at the launch of Threads, but it’s clear Instagram is looking to add this soon. Profiles include an Instagram username and link, with a threads.net label that includes the following description:

Instagram has been teasing the launch of Threads all week long with App Store and Google Play Store listings revealing the launch date and the main threads.net homepage counting down to the launch of the service. Threads is launching during a particularly chaotic period for Twitter, after unregistered users were blocked from viewing tweets last week, temporary rate limits caused issues, and major changes to TweetDeck rolled out after it broke completely.

Update, 9:30AM ET: Article updated to note that Instagram has removed Threads profiles from the web after it briefly appeared this morning.