A social media giant  is taking on Twitter.

The owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp - Meta - is launching a new app called Threads in New Zealand.

It's seen as a direct competitor to Elon Musk's Twitter, and offers a text-based version of Instagram.

Tech commentator Paul Stenhouse says it's still a bare-bones app.

"There's no chronological feed, there's nothing you can kind of switch between, there's no hashtags, there's no trending topics. It's just a screen and you get what you're given."

Paul Stenhouse says the app is in its early days.

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