When Zahan Malkani, a seasoned engineer at Meta, returned to work in January, the tech world buzzed with whispers of change, largely stemming from Elon Musk's controversial takeover of Twitter. As Twitter became increasingly chaotic, Meta recognized a pivotal opportunity to launch Threads, a new text-based social networking app designed to capture what many were losing trust in — public conversation.

Malkani outlined the creative process behind Threads, highlighting the strategic pivot that began when Mark Zuckerberg deemed private communication a priority over public discourse in 2019. This left Twitter as the primary platform for public conversations, a space many users found increasingly unstable post-Musk's takeover. Malkani and his team saw an opportunity to create a similar forum but with a distinct ethos that embraced clarity and community over chaos.

The vision was to create an app that firmly prioritized text-based engagement, retaining Instagram's user-friendly design while enabling a fresh, open interaction model reminiscent of early Twitter's culture of discourse. The strategy was clear: embed Instagram's functionalities into the new app to streamline development, allowing Threads to launch within five months without sacrificing quality.

Breaking Down the Build

In an ambitious plan, Malkani's team set four milestones for a bare-bones launch. Starting with the most basic user functionalities—such as logging in and making text posts—they gradually added essential features like notifications and media viewing within a structured timeline.

One major shortcut taken was leveraging Instagram's existing backend, allowing Threads to "reuse" infrastructure that was already in place. Although this created some technical debt, the urgency of the moment called for it: time was of the essence to seize the interest from disgruntled Twitter users.

Navigating Launch Challenges

As the launch date approached, the preparation ramped up amidst rising tensions. Scheduling hiccups occurred when users in East Asia accessed Threads ahead of the planned launch, revealing a significant surge in demand that needed to be urgently addressed. Despite the chaos, Threads officially launched on July 6, 2022, garnering phenomenal user adoption — with 100 million users registered within the first five days.

However, the launch wasn't without its fires. Engineers faced scalability challenges, including database overloads that stemmed from Mark Zuckerberg's high engagement, leading to necessary queries for optimization. The engineering team had to ensure the app could handle this explosive growth, and persistent issues required constant adaptations.

What's Next for Threads?

Fast forward nine months post-launch, and Threads has released significant updates, focusing on user feedback and adding functionalities like a chronological feed and web client. The platform is now making strides toward a notable feature: interoperability with the fediverse via ActivityPub. This approach aims to marry Threads with other microblogging networks, ensuring broader accessibility and user engagement.

Despite having faced several growing pains, Malkani reflected positively on the journey of creating Threads. The key takeaway for him? The importance of simplicity and adaptability in product design. Teams are now also focusing on addressing technical debt and improving the app's maintainability, ensuring Threads can evolve sustainably in the dynamic landscape of social media.

As Meta continues to enhance Threads and explore further enhancements, Malkani emphasizes that "this journey is just 1% finished," highlighting the never-ending evolution of social platforms and their role in fostering genuine online dialogue.

Stay tuned for what more this innovative platform will unleash! 📲✨