Longtime rivals Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk now have even more to disagree about, including the new Threads platform. (Source: Adobe Stock)

Differences Between Similar Social Media Options Involve Deletion, Verification

While the biggest news about a possible grudge match being held for a charity involved Mark “Meta” Zuckerberg vs. Elon “Space X” Musk. The very idea of this cage fight generated tremendous interest all across the board. From sports fans to social media influencers, it seems everyone wanted to see this event. For charity of course.

However, an even bigger news story knocked the cage fight out of the headlines. But as fate would have it, it also involved the same two tech heavyweights.

The Meta folks decided to bring another social media platform to market. Instagram Threads has already garnered around 70 million sign-ups in the first week. And it is in direct competition with Twitter, which is owned by Musk. In the first few days after the launch, Musk even threatened to sue Meta for infringing on its tech.

If you have not already signed up for Threads, we discovered a guide that points out nine differences between Threads and Twitter. We will share a few of the nine with you that we found at tomsguide.com.

Platform Differences

As much as we might enjoy scrolling through FaceBook or thumbing through the latest political spat on Twitter, we can’t help but wonder how many platforms are too many. The market will decide that is what economics tells us. But there are definite differences between these two platforms.

First Threads is directly tied to Instagram, which is another Meta company. Twitter is a separate entity.

Tom’s website whipped up a guide on how to download Threads and set up an account so that you can see what all of the hype is about, but here’s the gist: You sign into the Threads app using your Instagram credentials. Your first time logging in, you’ll be asked whether you want to import your Instagram profile details and follow the same users you follow on Instagram.

Twitter isn’t tied to another social media platform, so you sign up independently using the credentials of your choice. Due to the site’s autonomy, you can also learn how to delete your Twitter account at any time, with no consequence to other social media platforms you might use.

That’s not the case for Threads. To delete your Threads account, you’ll need to delete your Instagram account. Instead, you’ll want to know how to deactivate your Threads account, which will hide your profile and posts until you decide to reactivate. We hope this is something that will change down the line because now, it seems that Threads holds your account hostage. Many recommend opening a new Instagram account and connecting it to Threads to avoid that potential snafu.

Verification

Yes, more blue check marks are in your future if you use either platform. These checkmarks mean the user is verified. Threads verification carries over from Instagram. So, if you’re verified on Instagram, you’ll be verified on Threads. You can check out Instagram’s guidelines to see if you qualify for verification.

Twitter’s verification system is a bit more complicated. Before Musk took over the platform, Twitter had similar verification guidelines to Instagram based on your public standing. These days, you can buy a verification badge via a Twitter Blue subscription. The only exceptions are that government accounts get a gray check, while certain established organizations and news outlets get a gold check.

Messaging

The difference in messaging features between Threads and Twitter is simple: Twitter has in-app messaging, while Threads does not. Twitter’s messaging platform lets you communicate with mutuals (or any user, depending on their privacy settings) in a few ways. You can send texts, images and GIFs, and even voice messages. Messages are a simple way to share a tweet with another user, too.

Currently, Threads does not have an in-app option for messaging and it has a few other hiccups engineers are working on, according to executives.

Six other categories separate these social media giants, as explained in the story linked below. Many are waiting a bit to see how Threads shakes out their launch pains. Still more are waiting to hear about the actual cage match that both men claimed to want to hold.

read more at tomsguide.com