Meta V. Twitter: Hometown professor weighs in on new 'Threads' app

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- A new social media app is taking on Twitter.

Wednesday, July 5, Facebook parent company Meta rolled out its new social media app -- Threads.

In just hours, the app brought in millions of users.

Some users called the new app a 'Twitter killer'.

However, it might be too soon to tell if the "thread" is strong enough to take down one of social media's most influential platforms.

"I don’t like Twitter, at all, but I like threads," said Vanessa Pfeiffer, Threads user.

Threads is the newest addition to Mark Zuckerberg's Meta family.

The app, linked to Instagram., is billed as a place where users can have real-time conversations.

"I think it's very inviting and I think that it's more positive than anything honestly," said Pfeiffer.

Instagram has more than 2.3 billion users, all with the potential to make a Threads account.

Twitter founder, Elon Musk, sent a letter to Meta and threatened legal action, citing, "Meta has engaged in systematic, willful and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter's trade secrets and other intellectual property.

"This certainly isn't the first time that Meta has come out with a feature or a product that is patterned after other platforms," said Valerie Kretz, associate professor of Communication and Media Studies at Saint Norbert College.

Zuckerberg tweeted for the first time in nearly a decade, an image that appears to have an underlying meaning; while back on Threads saying, "feels like the beginning of something special."

Kretz went on to say the cost of entry for the new app, may have to do with its million-user growth.

"What we are seeing now is probably more people going, this is really low stakes join."

Kretz went on to say, the birth of Threads does not necessarily mean it's the swan song of Twitter.

"What happens is, a new platform is released and that becomes an addition to what they're using on social media," said Kretz.