For those of us tracking the development of Meta’s ActivityPub platform, this week has been a wild one. After briefly showing up on Google Play for a few hours, the Android version of Threads got leaked online. It doesn’t appear that anyone can actually log in, but dataminers picked apart the files to answer some long-running questions.

Soon, you’ll be able to follow and interact with people on other fediverse platforms, such as Mastodon. They can also find people on Threads using full usernames, such as @%1$s.”

Meta’s Threads App, found by Rairii

This version of the APK appears to contain some test data and image assets for some pre-made accounts. Included is some text verifying fediverse intentions, data indicating advertisements in the feed, and pointers to threads.net.

Additionally, some cyber-sleuths have uncovered both the Google Play and App Store pages. Some people have nabbed screenshots indicating an initial launch on July 6th.

It’ll be interesting to see how the fediverse reacts to Threads once they actually show up on the network. Some people suspect that federation might be part of a slow rollout, to be turned on at a later date. Many admins have pledged to block the server entirely, regardless of when Meta intends to flip that switch.

We’ll know more over the next few days.

Update: Dan York shared a screenshot indicating the Meta’s data collection policy for end users.

The sheer amount of telemetry Threads intends to collect is massive compared to other fediverse apps. Why does Threads need Health & Fitness data, or Financial info? Why do they need your purchases and search history? That’s rhetorical, by the way – but, it’s surprising to see this amount of personal data being requested, even for Meta.

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