Automatically creating a shadow account for everyone on Instagram?
Even allowing people to follow that account?
Sounds like they really wanted to push Threads out the door in a big way.
Why does everything have to be a conspiracy with some people? Threads literally and directly explains that it uses your Instagram account. They’re the same account. Nothing crazy. No magic. No oogie boogie. Just the same account.
Being able to use the same credentials for logging in is something else than creating a public profile for users that never signed up for the service.
but they don’t create a public profile for users that don’t sign up? it uses the same handle as your Instagram. If you never activate Threads then nothing happens with your IG username on Threads
ITT: no one who actually went through the sign-up process. It’s like a 3 step process. Eventually you get brought to a screen that asks if you want to follow all of your current followers on Instagram. You can choose yes or no to all the people you currently follow, or you can individually select who you want to follow in Threads the people you follow on Instagram. If you select anyone that has not yet activated their Threads account it literally tells you that nothing will happen for now, but if and when the user activates the account, you will follow them if they are public or it will request to follow them if they are private.
There’s no magic happening here. There’s no shadow accounts…you use the SAME login for Instagram and Threads. They obviously know when you activate your threads account and it will just show the list of users who have already completed the signup and requested to follow you
Now we know why it was not launched in EU.
This happened to me. Joined threads and what do I see? Signal and instantly had a bunch of random accounts follow me.
I think I’m sticking to Mastodon and Pixelfed.
As horrible as this obviously is, it’s also quite clever.
