The platform, launched by Instagram-owner Meta, has beaten a record set by Open AI’s ChatGPT app.

Threads went live on Apple and Android app stores in 100 countries, including the UK, last Wednesday.

Meta boss, Mark Zuckerberg said he “couldn’t believe” the milestone had been reached so fast.

It hasn’t all been plain sailing for Threads though – it is not available in mainland Europe yet because of uncertainty over whether it complies with EU data privacy legislation.

In his first public comments on the situation, the EU’s industry commissioner Thierry Breton told French radio station, Franceinfo, that “taking a little time to do so seems to me to be probably good policy.”

Despite its problems in the EU Threads has enjoyed rapid growth. Meta, which also owns Facebook, said the app had 10 million users within the first seven hours of launch and more than 30 million by Thursday morning.

Around 24 hours later, that figure had more than doubled.

It still has some way to go to catch its main rival though. At 100 million, Threads’ user base stands at less than a third of the 350 million users that Twitter is believed to have.

Some Twitter users have become disenchanted since billionaire Elon Musk took over. Thousands of jobs have been cut under his ownership and he has announced a number of changes to help generate revenue at Twitter.

Other rivals have emerged like Mastodon and Bluesky but have struggled without an existing user base.

Threads has capitalised on being linked to Instagram which has more than one billion users.

People who sign up to Threads will display a link to their profile in the app in their Instagram profile but there is an option to hide this.

In order to sign up for Threads, users must have an Instagram account.

It is not possible to delete your Threads profile without deleting the associated Instagram profile.

However, deactivating your Threads profile will not deactivate your Instagram account.

Deactivation will mean your Threads profile, your posts and interactions with others’ posts won’t be visible, Meta says.

Legal threat

Since Threads’ launch, Twitter has threatened the rival with legal action.

A lawyer for the company accused Mr Zuckerberg of “systematic, wilful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property” to create Threads.

Twitter claimed that Meta had hired former employees who “had and continue to have access to Twitter’s trade secrets and other highly confidential information”. Meta has denied this.

Users on Threads can post text of up to 500 characters, more than the 280 characters available on Twitter. Both apps allow people to post links, images and video.

But the rules governing what content can be posted differ – nudity and not-safe-for-work (NSFW) explicit images are prohibited on Threads.

Also unlike Twitter, there is no desktop version of Threads as yet.

Complete with a ruler emoji and all, Elon Musk has challenged Mark Zuckerberg to a “d**k-measuring” contest.

“I propose a literal d**k-measuring contest,” Musk tweeted on Sunday night.

Musk sent the tweet as a follow-up to his earlier tweet “Zuck is a cuck” which was in response to claims Muck protects free speech while Zuckerberg protects brand speech.

While Zuckerberg, whose company Meta owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has not yet responded to the tweets, tensions between the two have been on the rise.

A couple of weeks ago the tech titans seemingly agreed to engage in physical combat after a recent war of words that saw Musk lash out at rumoured plans by Meta to launch a text-based social media rival to his Twitter.

In response to a tweet last month from a user about  the app Threads, Musk wrote: “I’m sure Earth can’t wait to be exclusively under Zuck’s thumb with no other options.”

In a follow-up tweet, Musk teased the idea of a “cage match” with Zuckerberg.

Zuckerberg fired back in an Instagram story by posting a screenshot of Musk’s tweet overlaid with the caption “Send Me Location”. To which Musk replied “Vegas Octagon”.

On Thursday Meta officially launched a new app called Threads,  an app from Instagram that offers a Twitter-like microblogging experience.

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The brand-new social media app – a text-based conversation tool to rival Twitter – went live on 5 July.

It took the YouTuber, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, just a matter of hours to amass the impressive following.

He reached the milestone at 2:42 p.m. (BST) / 9:42 a.m. (EST) on 6 July.

And when he learned of his record-breaking achievement, MrBeast tweeted us to say: “Shhhhh, don’t let the twitter police know I’m cheating on them”.

While technically his wasn’t the first account to reach the number, the others belonged to organisations like Instagram and National Geographic.

MrBeast’s bio on Threads reads: “Future Threads CEO”, and he earned a following of 1 million after posting just three times.

His first post, shortly after the app went live, read: “Soooooo, how long until we’re also addicted to this app? Lol”.

He also invited his fans to like a post if they thought Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg should make him the app’s CEO.

MrBeast also cheekily joked: “I feel like I’m cheating on Twitter by using this app”.

Meta app Threads was pitched as a “friendly” alternative to Twitter, which has hit a few speed bumps ever since it was taken over by Space-X billionaire Elon Musk.

Like Twitter, users can publish posts including links, photos and videos, and others can like, reply and share them with their own followers.

Posts are limited to a maximum of 500 characters. And to make things easier for new users, people can sign in through Instagram, import their profile pictures and bios from the photo-sharing app, and even follow everyone they already follow on Instagram with the click of a button.

Threads is said to have quickly attracted more than 10 million users from its pool of the 2 billion Instagram accounts in existence. 

Zuckerberg, who was the second person to reach 1 million Threads followers, wrote in a post: “The goal is to keep it friendly as it expands. I think it’s possible and will ultimately be the key to its success. 

@guinnessworldrecords First person to reach one million followers on Threads ? @MrBeast #threads#mrbeast#instagram#socialmedia♬ original sound – Guinness World Records

“That’s one reason why Twitter never succeeded as much as I think it should have, and we want to do it differently.”

MrBeast, who is credited with pioneering a genre of YouTube videos that centre on expensive stunts and challenges, has a huge following across all of his social media channels.

38.5 million people follow him on Instagram and he has 165 million YouTube subscribers.

MrBeast holds a few other Guinness World Records titles, including highest-earning YouTube contributor (current) with a reported $54 m (£40 m) in 2021 and most subscribers for an individual male on YouTube.

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He pitched the app as a “friendly” rival to Twitter, which was bought by Elon Musk in October.

Experts say Threads could attract Twitter users unhappy with recent changes to the platform.

Threads allows users to post up to 500 characters, and has many features similar to Twitter.

Earlier, Mr Zuckerberg said keeping the platform “friendly… will ultimately be the key to its success”.

But Mr Musk responded: “It is infinitely preferable to be attacked by strangers on Twitter, than indulge in the false happiness of hide-the-pain Instagram.”

When asked on Threads whether the app will be “bigger than Twitter”, Mr Zuckerberg said: “It’ll take some time, but I think there should be a public conversations app with 1 billion+ people on it.

“Twitter has had the opportunity to do this but hasn’t nailed it. Hopefully we will.”

Competitors have criticised the amount of data the app might use. This may include health, financial, and browsing data linked to users’ identities, according to the Apple App Store.

Some users have also expressed concern that it is not possible to delete your Threads profile without deleting the associated Instagram profile. Meta told the BBC: “At this time, you can’t delete your Threads profile without deleting your Instagram account. This is something we’re working on. In the meantime, you can deactivate your Threads profile at any time.

“Deactivating your Threads profile will not deactivate your Instagram account”.

Deactivation will mean your Threads profile, your posts and interactions with others’ posts won’t be visible, the firm added.

Users can download and delete Threads data by visiting their Instagram settings, Meta says.

Threads is now available to download in over 100 countries including the UK, but not yet in the EU because of regulatory concerns.

‘Initial version’

Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, called the new app an “initial version”, with extra features planned including the ability to interact with people on other social media apps like Mastodon.

“Our vision with Threads is to take what Instagram does best and expand that to text,” the firm said prior to its launch.

Despite Threads being a standalone app, users log in using an Instagram account. Their Instagram username carries over, but there is an option to customize their profile specifically for Threads.

Users will also be able to choose to follow the same accounts they do on Instagram, Meta says. The app allows users to be private on Instagram, but public on Threads.

The new app’s release comes after criticism of Meta’s business practices.

Last year, Meta whistleblower Frances Haugen said the company had put “profits over safety” and criticised how the platform was moderated.

The company was also rocked by a scandal in which it allowed third parties, including British political consultancy Cambridge Analytica, to access Facebook users’ personal data.

In an apparent reference to this controversial past, Mr Musk joked on Monday “thank goodness they’re so sanely run”.

There are several alternatives to Twitter available, such as Bluesky and Mastodon, but these have struggled to gain traction.

Threads has a significant advantage because it is connected to Instagram, and the hundreds of millions of users already on that platform.

How does Threads work?

On Threads, posts can be shared to Instagram and vice versa and can include links, photos, and videos of up to five minutes in length.

.

However, some early users on Wednesday reported problems when uploading images, hinting at teething problems.

Users see a feed of posts, which Meta calls “threads”, from people they follow as well as recommended content.

They are able to control who can “mention” them and filter out replies to posts that contain specific words.

Unfollowing, blocking, restricting or reporting other profiles is also possible, and any accounts users block on Instagram are automatically blocked on Threads.

While Meta stresses ties to Instagram, media coverage has focused on its similarity to Twitter, with some investors describing the app as a “Twitter killer”.

On Saturday, Twitter boss Elon Musk restricted the number of tweets users could see on his platform per day, citing extreme “data scraping”.

It was Mr Musk’s latest push to get users to sign up to Twitter Blue, the platform’s subscription service.

Twitter has also announced that its popular user dashboard TweetDeck will go behind a paywall in 30 days’ time.

Since Mr Musk took over, many users of Twitter have publicly expressed their dissatisfaction with the platform and his stewardship – citing erratic behaviour and political views.

Last month, Mr Musk and Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg agreed – possibly in jest – to a cage fight, and Mr Zuckerberg’s early posts on Threads mentioned his interest in mixed martial arts.

While Threads will be available in the UK, it is not yet available in the EU because of regulatory uncertainty, particularly around the EU’s Digital Markets Act.

But the company says it is looking into launching in the EU.

That act lays down rules on how large companies such as Meta can share data between platforms that they own. The sharing of data between Threads and Instagram is part of the issue.

Meta maintains protecting privacy is fundamental to its business.

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The app, which is called Threads and is available for pre-order on the Apple App Store, will be linked to Instagram.

Screengrabs show a dashboard that looks similar to Twitter. Meta describes Threads as a “text based conversation app”.

The move is the latest in a rivalry between Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter owner Elon Musk.

Last month, the pair agreed to a physical fight, though it is unclear how serious the two men were about actually holding a bout.

“Thank goodness they’re so sanely run”, Mr Musk responded to a tweet about Threads, in an apparent fresh swipe at Mr Zuckerberg.

Meanwhile, Twitter has said that the popular user dashboard, TweetDeck will go behind a paywall in 30 days time.

The move is the latest push by Mr Musk as he tries to get users to sign up to Twitter’s subscription service, Twitter Blue.

On Saturday, the multi-billionaire restricted the number of tweets users could see, citing extreme “data scraping”.

It appears from Meta’s Threads app that it will be a free service – and there will be no restrictions on how many posts a user 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 description on the App Store says.

Pictures show screengrabs from the app, that look almost identical to Twitter.

Threads will also hoover up data on your phone, including location data, purchases and browsing history.

Several apps that bear a striking resemblance to Twitter have sprung up in recent years – such as Donald Trump’s Truth Social and Mastodon.

Another similar app, Bluesky claimed to have seen “record” traffic after Mr Musk’s move to restrict usage at the weekend.

However, Threads could be the biggest threat faced by Twitter to date.

Mark Zuckerberg has a history of borrowing other company’s ideas – and making them work.

Meta’s Reels is widely seen as a TikTok copy, while Stories looks similar to Snapchat.

Meta has the resources to compete with Twitter. Threads will be part of the Instagram platform, so it will also be connected to hundreds of millions of accounts. It’s not starting from zero, as other would-be rivals have had to do.

Although Mr Musk has been praised in some quarters for his commitment to free speech, he has also alienated some users.

Mr Zuckerberg will hope he can pull enough disenchanted users away from Twitter to create a genuine alternative.