The release of Instagram’s Threads app also marked a milestone for another app of the same name. According to an estimate shared by Data.ai, Threads, a Slack alternative that has been on the market since 2019 and which bears the same name as Instagram’s new service, was downloaded more than 880,000 times on iOS between July 6 and July 12. Threads, which was rarely downloaded before this period, became the 52nd most downloaded App Store application worldwide between the mentioned dates. It even made it to the top 10 in a handful of European Union countries, including Germany, Spain and Italy. This may have something to do with Instagram’s Threads not being available in the EU and Meta’s since then started blocking people trying to access the service via VPN.
— threads (@Threads) July 7, 2023
In addition, due to the ownership of Threads.com, Threads (Slack alternative) has experienced a significant increase in traffic to its website. In fact, the company has since added a badge to its homepage declaring it “not associated with Instagram.” There is a similar statement on Twitter. “We have no affiliation with the meta. But you can hang around here!” it says on the company profile…
Of course, Meta and Threads are not the first companies to use the same brand. Between them; There are several companies called Lightyear, which includes a solar electric vehicle startup, an online course platform, and two separate fintech firms. Still, that’s a funny coincidence when you consider that workplace chat app Threads was founded by Rousseau Kazi, a former Facebook product manager. Meta also previously used a companion Instagram app, confusingly called Threads.