Threads, Meta’s Twitter alternative app, is really hitting off. Having launched only 48 hours, the app saw 60 million downloads in the first seven hours alone. The app has been tested since January and several celebrities and content creators were asked to test it out prior to its July 5th evening launch earlier this week. 

As a result, many of them commented on changes and additions they might like to see in the very new app. “It’s not as full-fledged out,” creator Roberto Nickson said. “There’s no spaces, there’s no lists, there’s no trending topics yet. It’s pretty bare bones.”

One interesting remark is that hashtags are missing. Twitter is famous for the hashtag and was arguably the social media platform to populate it back in the day. Creators are already clamouring for a way to sift through the millions of posts on Instagram’s new app — and hashtags are one thing that could help. In response to an early user asking about hashtags on the app, head of Instagram Adam Mosseri responded on Threads with: “Not yet, but it’s on the list.”

Secondly, and actually the first thing I noticed upon downloading yesterday, is that there is no explore page. On Instagram, the explore page is the sole means of discovery and without it, it’s difficult to find new people and news to follow. Currently, the search bar on Threads only helps users find other users, and not content. Lauren Godwin, a content creator with over 22 million TikTok and 790,000 Instagram followers, told Insider that she would like to see an explore page within the app. Mosseri said in a Thread post that search capabilities are also “on the list.”

Creators also felt stumped on what to call posts. Just now, writing this article, I described Threads to my flatmate and caught myself saying I ‘tweeted’ a photo of one of my music visuals. ‘What are you supposed to call them?’ he asked, ‘posts, threads, crotchets…?’ I didn’t have an answer for him.
Mosseri even chimed in on the debate with a post on the app: “‘Posted’ most likely, maybe ‘threaded’ but that doesn’t quite feel right,” Mosseri wrote. Per an official post from the Threads App account, you can just say “post.” 

Threads is also notably missing the decentralised protocol that bolstered the earliest rumours of the app. But Instagram has reassured users that this feature will be arriving in the future. 

“We’re committed to building support for ActivityPub, the protocol behind Mastodon, into this app,” Mosseri said in a Threads post. “We weren’t able to finish it for launch given a number of complications that come along with a decentralised network, but it’s coming.”

Other features that are “on the list” for Instagram’s Threads include an option to toggle between multiple accounts, a specific feed for accounts users follow, and a desktop version of the app (although mobile is a priority, Mosseri said on Threads).  

Currently, there also are no DMs on the Threads app, but Mosseri said in a post that “we’re thinking we’ll lean into being open and steering people toward using other messaging apps to share threads.”