Threads lost half of its users, but it’s okay in Meta’s eyes

The brightest stars burn out the quickest, and Threads was the brightest in the sky a few weeks ago. The Meta social media app rocketed to 100 million users within a week, but its user base is waning, according to the company (via BBC). Threads has lost half of its users, but Meta is not worried.

In case you don’t know, Threads is the newest social media platform on the scene. It’s Meta’s answer to Twitter (or X, if you actually want to call it that) having borrowed heavily from the platform. It’s tied to your Instagram account, so if you have an Instagram account, you have a Threads account.

Threads lost half of its users

While Threads still has things that it can’t do, this fledgling platform has proven to be a worthy Twitter alternative. Again, it hit 100 million users in a few days. However, users and Active users are two very different things. The 100 million specifically refers to the number of sign-ups that the app got.

Active users are those who stick around and continue to post content. Meta announced that about half of the people who jumped on the Threads train have jumped off. This wasn’t unforeseeable, as Threads’ numbers have been on the fall immediately after it hit 100 million.

Is Meta worried? No

Meta’s response to this was pretty mild and optimistic. In fact, the company anticipated this happening and referred to it as normal. So, if you’re picturing Mark Zuckerberg and the Meta team panicking, that’s not the case.

In all honesty, this is something that we all anticipated. The initial hype around the app has cooled and most people have already made their posts bad-mouthing Elon Musk. The app has moved to the back of people’s minds.

The biggest reason for the dropoff might be the lack of features. While Threads is on its stable release, it feels like a beta. It’s pretty devoid of features like a DM system and the ability to post GIFs from the keyboard. It just recently gained the ability to see a feed of only those you follow.

Meta is still working on features for the platform, and it believes that it will win back some of those lost users with these features. Let’s hope that this is the case; things over at Twitter, A.K.A Elon’s Whacky House Of Shenanigans, aren’t looking too good.