In the ever-evolving landscape of social media, Instagram’s Threads app has emerged as a potential contender against the microblogging giant, Twitter.

Threads is a standalone app designed for more intimate sharing, allowing users to communicate directly with their friends and followers on Instagram. This focus on fostering closer connections sets it apart from Twitter’s more public and broad-scale communication approach though, in terms of UI and operation, the two are quite similar.

And much like its rival, users can share photos, and videos, and reply to other users as well.  Currently, though, there’s no way to DM or privately message accounts. Instagram says it will add more features if users start requesting them. According to The Verge, Threads is also currently allowing up to 500-character text posts and video posts of up to 5 minutes. Apparently, unverified users also have a temporary limit of viewing 600 posts per day.

Being part of the Meta family, Threads also offers seamless integration with other apps in the ecosystem. Users can link their Instagram accounts, allowing for a smooth transition of their close friends list and direct messages. Your profile can also be copied directly from Instagram and verified users will also be automatically verified on Threads.

The ultimate goal of Threads and other Meta apps is to build an ecosystem of easily accessible and seamlessly connected apps. If a creator has a large Instagram following, for example, this user can easily sign up for Threads and seamlessly invite fans and followers to join them on the new platform. This lessens the need to switch between multiple social media platforms and accounts, thus increasing security and, of course, ease of use.  Right now, you can see this coming into play with the Threads having a dedicated Instagram button that you can tap to launch the app.