This looks like it’s purely about gaming signup metrics for Threads. Make it easy to try, create a huge disincentive to cancel, and suddenly you have a wildly successful, “sticky” app.
Next step "due to incredibly good reception, we are auto-creating a Thread account for anyone signed up in any of our other platforms - saving our users billions of minutes!".
Google+ was a product trying to break into a market where the market didn't really need another product. Threads is obviously looking to take up the mantle for where Twitter is dying, and people are actively looking for a Twitter replacement. So comparing Threads to G+ is just not a good comparison.
I read a horror story on Slashdot about a user losing their Gmail account because of some issue on Google+ and that was it for me. I stayed away. My email account was too precious to risk.
my OpenAI API account got nuked due to a missing organization error when I switched clients one night. I just got an email back from their support... took them 2 months. For reference, ChatGPT API has been out for only 3 months.
I'm saying that FB wouldn't have needed to resort to this lousy strategy if that "alignment" that you mention would have given them enough numbers all by itself.
As such, adding a dying social-media activity ("short" texting) to a fading social-media property (IG) is also less than ideal for Meta the company.
