Instagram’s Threads has landed in the app store with a crystal clear goal: to challenge Twitter. The app’s logo is pretty clear, too: a white “@” symbol set against a black background. Or is it an ear? A tangled thread? A Tamil symbol?
As always, the Twitterverse is divided. “It looks like spaghetti that stuck to the wall,” one person wrote. “I like that they used a tapeworm as the threads logo,” another said. Insights range from the humorous to the astute: Is it Clippy the paperclip, or a Malayalam letter? Someone even thought the Threads logo captures exactly how it feels to be on the new app, which is to say . . . it’s all a little confusing.
Unlike those of other social apps, the Threads logo bucks the trend of discernible design. The Instagram logo depicts a camera; Twitter’s is a bird; TikTok’s is a musical note. Facebook, LinkedIn, BeReal (and even Truth Social, ugh) all chose the simplicity of a letter or a straightforward wordmark.
But Threads is a Rorschach test. It is open to interpretation, and different people will inevitably perceive the pattern in different ways.
Instagram didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, so the team’s approach and intent remain unclear. That said, earlier screenshots of the app show a simpler, if more tilted illustration of the “@” symbol, suggesting a clear reference to a character that has become the linchpin of electronic communication.
Indeed, the “@” symbol was born during the Renaissance, then reborn with the dawn of the internet, but it was Twitter that propelled it to icon status. By choosing the “@” symbol as its logo, Threads is staking a claim as the hottest new online community. And by choosing a black-and-white color palette, Threads is challenging TikTok as well (something Instagram has been doing for years.)
At least that’s my own interpretation of the Rorschach test. Until we know more, here’s one thing everyone seems to agree on so far: that pull-to-refresh animation is pure gold.
