Remember Threads? It's now got 175 million users and continues to grow

Meta's rival to X, formerly known as Twitter, isn't going anywhere and is still aiming to surpass Elon Musk's platform

(Credit: Meta)

• 📈 Threads is steadily gaining in popularity

• 👏 Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg has announced Threads has more than 175 million monthly active users

• 🤷‍♂️ It’s hard to determine how many of those actually use the service or just pass by due to it being integrated into Instagram

• 🙌 Threads was hailed as a Twitter killer when it launched, but enthusiasm died down

Threads launched to great fanfare back in 2023 and was widely tipped to be the Twitter alternative that would swiftly kill Elon Musk’s platform. However, those predictions were premature, as enthusiasm for Mark Zuckerberg’s take on X quickly began to wane.

But Meta isn’t giving up and is more bullish than ever about its prospects. Zuckerberg announced that Threads has reached more than 175 million monthly active users, but it’s hard to ascertain how much of that is due to the app being integrated into Instagram.

Threads hasn’t been without its problems, either. User counts fell dramatically and the platform introduced rate limits, something which X was widely slammed for at the time. The app also launched with several privacy concerns, including the fact you have to surrender almost every piece of personal information possible.

Threads also doesn’t make any money for Meta, as you might expect. The Verge has been told that it could introduce ads soon and that there’s scope to integrate it into Instagram’s existing ads system.

But for now, the aim still seems to be to keep expanding the platform to more users. The head of Instagram Adam Mosseri told The Verge shortly after the app launched, “It would be great if it gets really, really big, but I’m actually more interested in if it becomes culturally relevant and if it gets hundreds of millions of users.”

Whether or not Threads will ever be able to surpass X is unclear, particularly as Elon Musk hasn’t shared similar metrics since he took ownership. Musk is also arguably taking X in a different direction to Threads, as it aims to become “the everything app”. X introduced video calling, job adverts, and will soon launch a peer-to-peer payment service this year.

• Up next: Elon Musk's latest change to X is the most contentious one yet

Adam Vjestica is The Shortcut’s Senior Editor. Formerly TechRadar’s Gaming Hardware Editor, Adam has also worked at Nintendo of Europe as a Content Marketing Editor, where he helped launch the Nintendo Switch. Follow him on X @ItsMrProducts.