Facebook owner Meta is preparing to launch a new app later this week to compete with Twitter.
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Threads, which Meta describes as a "text based conversation app" will go live in the US and UK on Thursday.
No launch date for Australia has been announced at this stage, although Meta has confirmed the app will be linked to Instagram.
![Meta is gearing up to launch a new social media platform this week. Picture by Adam McLean Meta is gearing up to launch a new social media platform this week. Picture by Adam McLean](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/204692884/9dcbe2ef-68c1-430a-aeeb-86b97f90399c.jpg/r0_0_4833_3222_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Like Meta's other platforms, Threads will track location data, purchases and browsing history.
In contrast to recent changes made at Twitter, it appears the app will be a free service, with no restrictions on how many posts users can see.
"Threads is where communities come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to what'll be trending tomorrow," the App Store description says.
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This comes as Twitter owner Elon Musk announced that the popular user dashboard, TweetDeck, will go behind a paywall in 30 days' time.
The move is the latest push by the platform to get users to sign up for Twitter's paid subscription service, Twitter Blue.
On July 1, Mr Musk restricted the number of tweets users could see, citing extreme "data scraping".
The rivalry between Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Mr Musk has been building over the last few months, with both men agreeing to a cage fight back in June.
The Mr Musk responded "thank goodness they're so sanely run" to a tweet about Threads on July 4.
Early previews of the app show a dashboard that looks almost identical to Twitter's.
![Instagram's text-based conversation app will launce on 7 July. Instagram's text-based conversation app will launce on 7 July.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/172575538/fc7025a0-28c6-4b4d-ac06-8e41f47c6e89.jpg/r0_0_1000_522_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
It's not the first time Mr Zuckerberg has borrowed ideas from other platforms, with Meta's Reels widely seen as a TikTok copy, while Stories bears a resemblance to Snapchat.
Meta's latest dip into virtual reality in the form of the metaverse is functionally similar to VRChat.
Alternative platforms such as Mastodon have seen increased popularity since Mr Musk's acquisition of Twitter in October 2022, although Meta dwarfs them in scale.