Threads Aims to Be Your Go-To Morning App
▼ Summary
– Threads had a very successful year, becoming Apple’s second-most-downloaded iOS app and reaching 400 million monthly active users.
– Its growth is heavily driven by promotions within Meta’s other platforms like Instagram and Facebook to attract and retain users.
– The app’s strategy is to become the internet’s hub for real-time conversation by focusing on specific verticals like sports and entertainment, while viewing Reddit and Discord as key competitors.
– Threads is not directly monetizing creators but acts as a traffic channel to their paid platforms, and is slowly introducing ads with a deliberately light load.
– The platform is prioritizing timely content and testing user-controlled algorithm features, but federation (the fediverse) and news are not current top priorities.
Meta’s Threads app is positioning itself to become a daily habit, aiming to be the first app users open each morning. The platform has seen remarkable growth, boasting 400 million monthly active users and 150 million daily active users, making it the second most downloaded iOS app of the year. Much of this momentum comes from strategic integration with Meta’s other social networks, where personalized Threads content is surfaced to entice users to download the app and eventually check it independently.
The head of Threads, Connor Hayes, emphasizes the goal is to become the definitive online destination for discussing global events. This involves a vertical-by-vertical strategy, focusing on areas like sports and entertainment to attract both creators and audiences. While acknowledging X as the pioneer of the format, Hayes sees competition from platforms like Reddit and Discord, which host vibrant, real-time communities. The battle for public conversation is clearly a multi-front engagement.
For creators, Threads currently functions less as a direct revenue source and more as a powerful traffic channel. The app is forging partnerships with platforms like Spotify, allowing podcasters to feature show links on their profiles, with potential for similar integrations with Substack or Patreon. The focus is on driving audiences to external sites where monetization already exists, rather than building native paywalls or ad revenue shares on Threads itself.
Advertising is on the horizon, but the approach is cautious. Threads is testing ads in a limited number of countries, including the United States, with a deliberately light ad load. The plan is to increase this steadily over the next year, but only when the team feels the user experience provides enough value to justify the introduction of commercials.
A significant development is the test of a feature called “Dear Algo,” which grants users unprecedented control over their feeds. People can request to see more or less of specific topics, share their algorithm prompts, and have their personalized feed adjust for a set period. This level of granular control is made possible by advances in content understanding from large language models, which can now identify specific events, like a particular NBA Finals game, rather than just general topics.
While Threads continues to support federation with the broader “fediverse,” including apps like Mastodon, this interoperability is not a current priority. Hayes notes the significant engineering challenge of maintaining compatibility across divergent platforms, suggesting the team’s energy is focused on core app development and features that drive mainstream growth.
The app has also made strides in prioritizing timely content, actively promoting posts from the last 24 hours to ensure freshness. However, Threads is taking a different path from X regarding news. The platform is not actively courting journalists or publishers, instead treating news as just another content vertical. The strategy relies on existing creators who excel in that space and the audiences seeking their insights, without specifically ranking news higher or lower in user feeds.
(Source: The Verge)
