Threads uses three design tricks Twitter doesn't: a plus-sign follow button on avatars, swipeable image carousels instead of static grids, and a connecting line that appears when unfollowed accounts interact with your followed accounts' posts.
Recently, Instagram launched a new social media app called Threads, and it looks so much like Twitter. Here are 3 unique design patterns that differentiate Threads from Twitter. The first one is the follow button on the avatars of accounts that you don't follow whenever they show up on your timeline. Whenever an account that you don't follow shows up on your timeline, there's a little plus button on that avatar, and when you click the avatar, it prompts you to follow the user. The second one is how Threads presents images whenever you post multiple images together. If you post 4 images, on Threads, it's going to display them as a carousel of images that you can swipe left or swipe right to view on the timeline. On Twitter, this is different because when you post 4 images, Twitter arranges them in a grid. The 3rd one is a cheeky little design detail that you notice when an account that you don't follow interacts with a post from an account that you follow. The thread connecting both accounts looks like an actual thread. So you can see the line connecting those accounts loop like an actual knot that you find in a thread. And I think this is an interesting visual design detail that just brings little moments of delight when you're scrolling through the app.
