It’s official (ish): Threads is the fastest-growing non-game app ever

Meta’s newest platform hit 100 million downloads in less than a week. By comparison, ChatGPT (not technically an app) needed two months to hit that landmark, while Instagram itself needed 15 months to even get to 30 million.

And that’s before it’s available in the European Union, where the delay has been put down to “upcoming regulatory uncertainty.”

Rightsholders, brands, athletes and celebrities have been quick to jump in, with the likes of Karlie Kloss, Jennifer Lopez and Ellen De Generes leading the way.

Ease of sign-up, including the ability to port across Instagram following and followers, has been key to Threads’ immediate impact, as is the familiarity of the feed and how to post and engage.

But now comes the much bigger test. Will those people who spend time on Twitter – who, despite the prevailing doom and gloom, still have an estimated 436 million monthly active users – really choose to switch to Threads? And will Instagram devotees who have set up a Threads profile out of curiosity or to follow the crowd be tempted to stick around?

The launch was rushed – a direct response, it is said, to Twitter controversially putting rate limits in place the previous weekend  – and Instagram boss Adam Mosseri says they will take a ‘fast follow’ approach.

Think of this as Threads 1.0. Functionality is basic – no DMs, no polls, no in-depth video metrics and no hashtags or community spaces to follow emerging stories. Mosseri has stated that Threads’ aim is not to replace Twitter (sure!), but that they will also not encourage politics and hard news. For hardcore Twitter users hoping for a genuine alternative, this will be a conflicting approach and disappointing to hear.

A feed of people you follow? (Currently it’s algorithm-driven only). It’s coming. An edit button? Also on the to-do list.

Meta are also promising that Threads will soon be hooked into ActivityPub, the decentralised social media protocol.

“I think we might be a more compelling platform for creators if we are a place where you feel you don’t have to trust us forever,” Mosseri tells The Verge.

Safety measures are also being pushed as an antidote to Twitter for creators and celebrities. Threads enforces Instagram’s Community Guidelines – including tools for moderating conversations, and the ability to control who can mention or reply to them.

In positioning Threads as a creator-focused platform, Meta appear to be finally recognising that creators are the lifeblood of any social platform.

Threads certainly has a number of challenges on the horizon – how will largely multi-media content creators respond to a predominantly text-based experience? At present, most brands are playing it very safe with recycling content from other social platforms; not a sustainable strategy in the medium or long-term for any emerging platform and it will have to find its own differentiator besides being Not Twitter in the crucial coming weeks.

But where Mastodon, Clubhouse and Bluesky have failed, Threads seems to have learned. Its growth has been dramatic, impressive and transition has been smooth. From a purely technical perspective, it’s a remarkable achievement. But now the platform must find its identity, and if Mosseri’s ambition is to turn it into a “public square for communities” they must avoid that public square being more Milton Keynes than Manhattan.

As Meta themselves have said, the app will continue to evolve and develop in time. We are still in the early days but given the platform’s significant backing and promising early numbers, it’s well worth considering in the conversation.

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