  Threads, a new microblogging platform from Meta, was launched in July 2023.
In contrast to prior new platforms, Threads was borne out of an existing parent
platform, Instagram, for which all users must already possess an account. This
offers a unique opportunity to study platform evolution, to understand how one
existing platform can support the "birth" of another. With this in mind, this
paper provides an initial exploration of Threads, contrasting it with its
parent, Instagram. We compare user behaviour within and across the two social
media platforms, focusing on posting frequency, content preferences, and
engagement patterns. Utilising a temporal analysis framework, we identify
consistent daily posting trends on the parent platform and uncover contrasting
behaviours when comparing intra-platform and cross-platform activities. Our
findings reveal that Threads engages more with political and AI-related topics,
compared to Instagram which focuses more on lifestyle and fashion topics. Our
analysis also shows that user activities align more closely on weekends across
both platforms. Engagement analysis suggests that users prefer to post about
topics that garner more likes and that topic consistency is maintained when
users transition from Instagram to Threads. Our research provides insights into
user behaviour and offers a basis for future studies on Threads.
