Hitting 175 million users doesn’t mean Threads is sticking. Monthly active users is a tricky metric for a platform that is trying to host real-time conversations. What’s to say people aren’t getting lured in once a month by a suggested post on their IG feed?
Threads doesn’t influence trends or public discourse like Twitter used to. Casey Newton alluded to some explanations for that in an interview with Threads head Adam Mosseri, like the fact that it’s overly polished, deprioritizes news, or has very little content that is actually funny. Max Read called it the “gas leak social network” for how confusing it is to have a feed full of algorithmically selected bits of stories he can’t follow from people he doesn’t know.
Users want social media that’s social. When Noplace topped the App Store this week, a lot was made about its MySpace-like customization options, but the app’s founder also credits part of the popularity to feeds free of algorithms. That touches on a common theme in buzzy apps like Wizz, Yubo, and BeReal, or even Snapchat’s growing audience of young people — connecting with friends and interesting people, not algorithms or influencers.