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Meta’s Twitter Competitor, Threads, Is Available Today
The new platform uses your Instagram login and allows 500-character text posts, as well as photos, videos, and links.
Threads, the Twitter competitor created by Facebook and Instagram parent company, Meta, has finally launched after months of rumors and leaks. The platform can be accessed from a desktop site at Threads.net or via iOS and Android apps.
Threads allows users to create Twitter-style text posts of up to 500 characters plus share photos and videos of up to five minutes as well as links. The app looks much like Twitter, including a minimal interface with options to like, comment, repost, and share content. Because Threads is closely linked to Instagram, users can log in with their existing credentials and easily follow the same people from that platform.
The main feed on Threads features recommended content and posts from followed profiles, while a filter system allows users to block out certain words and limit who can reply to their threads.
Meta has decided not to add Threads support for ActivityPub right now. The decentralized social networking protocol — used by Mastodon and others — would allow the transfer of information from Threads to other hosts, among other functions.
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“We believe this decentralized approach, similar to the protocols governing email and the web itself, will play an important role in the future of online platforms,” Meta explained. “Threads is Meta’s first app envisioned to be compatible with an open social networking protocol — we hope that by joining this fast-growing ecosystem of interoperable services, Threads will help people find their community, no matter what app they use”.
The launch of Threads comes as Twitter users experience yet more drama. Elon Musk recently imposed a temporary rate limit for unverified users, limiting them to 600 daily post views. At one point, Twitter also blocked logged-out users from viewing tweets entirely before subtly reversing the decision shortly afterwards.
As for Threads, the app is available in over 100 countries — including the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia — and has already been downloaded over 5 million times. Notably, the platform won’t be available in the European Union due to the complexities of complying with the region’s strict data protection regulations.
News
Egypt’s Mobile Wallets Are Booming, But Cash Still Has Power
Egypt’s telecom regulator says $57.6 billion moved through more than 57 million wallets in six months. And one operator handled 77% of the value.
Egypt’s mobile wallets handled EGP 2.96 trillion ($57.6 billion) in transactions in the first half of 2026, according to the National Telecom Regulatory Authority – a 56% rise on the EGP 1.90 trillion ($36.9 billion) recorded a year earlier. Transactions grew faster still, up 62% to 2.22 billion, while registered wallets climbed 23% to 57.01 million.
On one reading, that is exactly what Egypt’s regulators have been pushing for: a payments system that runs through telecom-linked wallets rather than banknotes. But the same data shows how far cash still reaches into it. Cash withdrawals made up just 12% of the transactions taking money out of wallets, yet 75% of the value withdrawn or spent.
Money arrives mostly from bank accounts: transfers through InstaPay accounted for 78% of deposit transactions and 58% of the value deposited, while incoming remittances from abroad made up 3% of deposit transactions but 10% of their value. Once inside, it largely moves between wallets – wallet-to-wallet transfers accounted for 54% of all transactions and 67% of total value, with mobile and internet top-ups a distant second at 25% of volume. In effect, the wallet is serving as a transfer layer: the place money passes through between the bank account and the banknote.
That layer also runs predominantly through one operator. Vodafone Cash held 53% of registered wallets and 57% of active ones, but handled 69% of transactions and 77% of their value. Its nearest rival, e& money, held 23% of registered wallets but 14% of transaction value; Orange Cash 20% and 8%; WE Pay 4% of wallets. How many of the 57.01 million are active is not stated.
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Adoption is rather uneven in other respects. Men held 38 million wallets, or 67% of the total, against 19 million held by women. Users aged 26 to 45 accounted for half of all wallets, and Cairo alone had 10.6 million, or 19% of the national total, with Giza next at 6.5 million.
The NTRA says it is continuing to work with telecom operators on the regulatory framework for wallet services, part of a wider effort to expand electronic payments and financial inclusion. Its own figures show that effort succeeding on the way in. On the way out, three-quarters of the value still leaves as cash.
Egypt’s Mobile Wallets Are Booming, But Cash Still Has Power
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