In the competition for social media dominance, Instagram's Threads is pulling ahead of X, previously known as Twitter. Threads is getting three times more daily downloads than X on iOS around the world.
On Google Play, it's more than double and sometimes even three times more. This trend marks a significant shift. When Threads first launched in the summer of 2023, it saw a huge number of new users.
However, its download numbers would go up and down as Meta, its parent company, tried different ways to attract more users, such as showing popular Threads posts in Facebook and Instagram feeds. After these efforts, download numbers would often drop but then pick up again, competing closely with X, especially on iOS.
But as the end of the year approached, Threads began to consistently outperform X in daily downloads. By late December, it was seeing over half a million installs each day across Google Play and iOS.
This lead has continued, with Threads maintaining higher download rates than X. For instance, on February 25, 2024, Threads had significantly more installs than X on both platforms.
This increase in downloads suggests that Threads could soon overtake X in terms of monthly active users. Meta's approach with Threads is different from traditional social media; it has decided not to promote news or political content heavily.
Despite this, Threads is doing well, particularly in Japan, which is notable since Twitter used to be very popular there.
X, on the other hand, is facing challenges. Its rebranding from Twitter seems to have impacted its download rates, which, although slightly up in December and January, are still lower than before the name change. Moreover, issues with spam and automated accounts are ongoing.
Other social media platforms like Mastodon and the new Bluesky are also in the race but lag far behind Threads and X. Mastodon has a broad network of third-party apps but only about 1 million monthly active users.
Bluesky had a surge in downloads when it became publicly available but hasn't maintained that momentum.
However, it's still early days for Bluesky, and it might gain more users over time, especially with its new federation feature that lets anyone run their own Bluesky server.
H/T: TechCrunch. (via Appfigures)
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On Google Play, it's more than double and sometimes even three times more. This trend marks a significant shift. When Threads first launched in the summer of 2023, it saw a huge number of new users.
However, its download numbers would go up and down as Meta, its parent company, tried different ways to attract more users, such as showing popular Threads posts in Facebook and Instagram feeds. After these efforts, download numbers would often drop but then pick up again, competing closely with X, especially on iOS.
But as the end of the year approached, Threads began to consistently outperform X in daily downloads. By late December, it was seeing over half a million installs each day across Google Play and iOS.
This lead has continued, with Threads maintaining higher download rates than X. For instance, on February 25, 2024, Threads had significantly more installs than X on both platforms.
This increase in downloads suggests that Threads could soon overtake X in terms of monthly active users. Meta's approach with Threads is different from traditional social media; it has decided not to promote news or political content heavily.
Despite this, Threads is doing well, particularly in Japan, which is notable since Twitter used to be very popular there.
X, on the other hand, is facing challenges. Its rebranding from Twitter seems to have impacted its download rates, which, although slightly up in December and January, are still lower than before the name change. Moreover, issues with spam and automated accounts are ongoing.
Other social media platforms like Mastodon and the new Bluesky are also in the race but lag far behind Threads and X. Mastodon has a broad network of third-party apps but only about 1 million monthly active users.
Bluesky had a surge in downloads when it became publicly available but hasn't maintained that momentum.
However, it's still early days for Bluesky, and it might gain more users over time, especially with its new federation feature that lets anyone run their own Bluesky server.
Read next: YouTube Kids Integrates Into The Main App On Smart TVs And Game Consoles For Simpler Access
