After a week of rumours that a Twitter competitor was in the works, Meta launched Threads on Wednesday evening, more than half a day earlier than expected.

The app’s interface is very similar to Twitter, allowing users to make text posts of under 500 characters that can embed photos, videos and links. The main feed is a mix of content from accounts a user follows and those algorithmically suggested by the app. Users can set up their profile on Threads by linking to their Instagram account, prompting them on sign-up with the ability to follow the same users on both platforms.

“Our vision with Threads is to take what Instagram does best and expand that to text, creating a positive and creative space to express your ideas,” the company said in a blog post announcing the launch, which also emphasized several features that address pain points both users and brands have expressed with Twitter in recent months.

On the brand safety front, Meta said it would be using similar content controls to allow users to filter out accounts, words and subjects they do not want to see, enforcing Instagram’s community guidelines “to enable positive, productive conversations.”

“Since 2016 we’ve invested more than $16 billion in building up the teams and technologies needed to protect our users, and we remain focused on advancing our industry-leading integrity efforts and investments to protect our community,” the company said.

In addition, account verification would transfer over from a user’s Instagram account to their Threads account.

Threads is currently available as an app on both iOS and Android. A desktop version is expected to launch in the near future.

Currently, there are no ads on Threads – head of Instagram Adam Mosseri told The Verge he was “confident” that the monetization model would be advertising once it gets to scale, something the app has already been built to support and have integrated with the company’s other ad products. When setting up their Threads profile, users are informed that data from both Threads and Instagram will be used “to personalize ads and other experiences” on both platforms. The app itself also requires advertising-related permissions in both the Apple and Google app stores.

Threads brought in more than 10 million users globally in its first seven hours of availability, thanks to its ability to easily pull from Instagram’s existing user base. Before noon on Thursday, Mark Zuckerberg posted on Threads that it had topped 30 million sign-ups.

During a press conference on Wednesday announcing that the federal government would be suspending advertising on Meta platforms, Minister of Canadian Heritage Pablo Rodriguez was asked whether or not Threads would be subject to the terms of the Online News Act. Rodriguez said that he could not say for sure until the app launched, but referred back to the language of the Act itself. When it comes to who the Act regulates, it is primarily concerned with the “operators” – in other words, the owners – of services and platforms that make news available to Canadians, not the platforms and apps themselves.

Similarly, Meta has not specified whether or not its plans to block news content from Facebook and Instagram would extend to Threads, but the terms of the Online News Act suggest the company would need to in order to avoid bargaining under the law’s terms.

Meta has not set a date for when it plans to block news from its platforms, beyond that it would happen before the Online News Act comes into effect, which is set to happen some time before the end of the year.

On Wednesday, several media companies and governments said they would pull their advertising spending from Meta-owned platforms in response to the company’s plans to block news from its platforms. After Rodriguez made his announcement, he was joined by the Government of Quebec in pausing Meta ads, along with the City of Montreal and several other municipal governments in the province. Before the end of the day, CBC, La Presse and Cogeco had also joined Quebecor in the ranks of media companies that would no longer be advertising on Meta platforms.