Threads (social network) facts for kids
.svg) |
|
|
Screenshot
The Threads account page for Wikipedia
|
|
|
Type of site
|
Social networking platform |
|---|---|
| Available in | |
| Area served | Over 100 countries |
| Owner | Meta Platforms |
| Registration | Required to interact (reply, like) but otherwise optional on the web, required for mobile apps |
| Launched | July 5, 2023 |
| Current status | Active |
| Native client(s) on | iOS, Android |
Threads is an online app where people can share messages and connect with others. It's like a social media and social networking service. The app is run by a company called Meta Platforms.
To use Threads, you need an Instagram account. Threads works a lot like X. You can post text, pictures, and videos. You can also reply to other people's posts, share them (repost), and click "like."
You can get the Threads app on iOS (Apple) and Android phones. There's also a website version, but it has fewer features. When Threads first launched, it grew super fast. It got over 100 million users in just five days! This made it the fastest-growing app ever at that time. However, this huge growth didn't last. By the end of July 2023, the number of daily users dropped quite a bit.
After Elon Musk bought Twitter in October 2022, people at Meta started thinking about adding text features to Instagram. They first tried "Instagram Notes" in December 2022. Then, they decided to make a whole new app just for text posts. This new app, called "Project 92" inside the company, started being built in January 2023. Threads officially launched on July 5, 2023. It was available in 100 countries right away. But it took longer to launch in the European Union. This was because Meta needed to understand the rules about collecting user data there.
Contents
How Threads Started
The First Threads App
In October 2019, there was an earlier app also called Threads. This first app was for Android and iOS phones. It was a lot like Snapchat. Users could send messages and video chat with their "Close friends" on Instagram. You could send pictures, photos, and texts privately. It also had Instagram's photo editing tools.
Instagram stopped this first Threads app in December 2021. This happened because most of its features were already added to Instagram. Also, not many people used it compared to other social media apps. Only about 220,000 people around the world downloaded the original Threads app. This was less than 0.1% of Instagram's monthly users.
Building the New App
In April 2022, Elon Musk tried to buy the social media app Twitter. He successfully bought the company for $44 billion in October 2022. As the new owner, Musk made some changes to Twitter. Some of these changes worried advertisers, and some left the platform.
In November 2022, people at Meta Platforms started talking about making a separate app for Instagram Notes. This was a new text-based feature for Instagram. That same month, Meta's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, saw a chance to create something new. He talked with Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, about adding Twitter-like features. Mosseri agreed to build a separate app. They planned to release it in January 2023.
A team of about 56 people from Messenger, Facebook, and Instagram worked on the app. They wanted to build it quickly. They decided to add some features, like searching for content, later. The project started in January under the secret name "P92." News about the app got out in March and June. Meta's chief product officer, Chris Cox, said "Project 92" was Meta's answer to Twitter. Meta also talked to some famous people, like Oprah Winfrey and the 14th Dalai Lama, to join the app. The app was built in just five months.
In July, a developer found "Project 92" on the Google App Store. It was called Threads, and he shared screenshots. The app was quickly taken down. On July 3, Threads appeared on the Apple App Store. It showed a release date of July 6. There was also a website with a countdown clock. Mosseri wanted to release the app a week later. But he moved the date up after Elon Musk limited how many tweets users could read on Twitter. The countdown ended on July 5, and Threads officially launched in 100 countries. Meta is still waiting for clear rules from the European Commission about how the app collects data.
Launch Day
Within one day of its launch, Threads got 30 million users. This was a new record, even faster than ChatGPT. It became the fastest-growing platform ever. On the same day, lawyers for Twitter said they might sue Meta. They claimed Meta used Twitter's secret information to build Threads. Meta said this was not true. They stated that no former Twitter engineers worked on the Threads team.
After the launch, Mark Zuckerberg posted on Twitter for the first time in 11 years. He shared a Spider-Man meme. This showed how similar Twitter and Threads were.
On August 22, 2023, Meta launched the website version of the Threads app.
On December 14, 2023, Threads finally launched in the European Union. This was after a five-month delay due to privacy worries.
Meta also announced that Threads would temporarily close in Turkey from April 29, 2024. This was due to local rules about sharing data with Instagram.
How Threads Looks and Works
Threads is made for real-time talks and sharing. It wants to give users an experience similar to Twitter. Threads focuses on public conversations, often called microblogging. It is also closely connected to Instagram. Meta said they wanted Threads to be a "positive and creative space to express your ideas."
Users can create posts with up to 500 characters of text. They can also post videos up to 5 minutes long. (On Twitter, non-paying users can post 280 characters of text and videos up to 2 minutes 20 seconds). However, Threads doesn't have some common social media features. For example, it doesn't show "trending stories" or allow direct messages.
After getting feedback from users, Threads added new features. These include a new home feed for posts. Users can now edit their posts and translate them into many languages. The app also made it easier to switch between different Threads accounts.
Threads also has a reposting feature. You can see reposts on each user's profile and in your following feed.
Connecting with Other Apps
When Threads launched in July 2023, Meta said it would eventually support something called the ActivityPub protocol. This is an open standard that would connect Threads to a "fediverse" of social media apps. This means users could move their data and followers to other apps that also use ActivityPub. Examples include Mastodon and WordPress.
In early 2024, Meta started adding parts of ActivityPub to Threads. This allowed posts from some Threads accounts to be seen by users on ActivityPub platforms. Meta plans to add more ActivityPub features over time. On March 21, 2024, Threads added a "beta" feature. This let public Threads accounts be seen on the Fediverse. Users could also see how many "likes" their posts got.
Some people who run Mastodon servers are not happy about connecting with Threads. They worry that Meta might try to take over the "fediverse." They also worry that Threads might not stop bad content aimed at certain groups of people.
Connecting to Instagram Accounts
Threads accounts are very closely linked to Instagram accounts. By default, your Threads and Instagram accounts share the same username, profile picture, and display name. But you can change your profile picture and display name on Threads. You can also choose which Instagram friends you want to follow on Threads.
Before Threads launched in the EU, if you wanted to delete your Threads account, you also had to delete your Instagram account. But since December 2023, this is no longer true. You can now delete or temporarily turn off your Threads account without deleting your Instagram account.
You need an Instagram account to use Threads. Threads uses Instagram to check who you are and connect with your friends.
Where You Can Use Threads
Threads is available on mobile phones that use Apple's iOS and Google's Android systems. You can also use Threads on web browsers on computers.
Blocking the App
In Iran, the government has blocked Threads. It's now on a long list of social media apps that are not allowed there. Even though China has the Great Firewall that blocks many apps, Threads became one of the top free social apps on the Chinese iOS Apple App Store. However, the app was removed from the Chinese App Store on April 19, 2024, because the government ordered it. Russia also blocked Threads one day after it launched.
Ads on Threads
Threads does not have ads right now. But ads are planned for the future. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that ads would not be added until the app had "hundreds of millions" of users.
How Many People Use Threads
After it launched, Threads grew very quickly. It reached 100 million users in just five days. Some experts say that the number of daily active users dropped by 20% after the first five days. They also say that people used the app 50% less. The average time people spent on the app also went down. It dropped from about 20 minutes per user on July 6 to just under 3 minutes by August 1.
| Users (millions) | 2 | 5 | 10 | 20 | 30 | 70 | 90 | 100 | 105* | 110* | 120* | 130* | 160* | 190* |
| Time since launch | 2 hours | 4h | 7h | 12h | 16h | 2d | 4d | 5d | 6d | 8d | 26d | 62d | 166d | 317d |
| References |
*estimated
Decline After Launch
When Threads reached about 105 million users on July 11, 2023, Meta stopped sharing its user numbers. Later numbers were guessed by looking at follower counts. Even though many people signed up at first, the number of daily active users dropped by 70% by July 17. This was down from its highest point on July 7.
By mid-August, the number of daily users on Threads had fallen by over 80%. The number of daily Android users also dropped by 79%. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that this drop in users was "normal." He thought that more people would keep using the app as new features were added. Threads first attracted users who were leaving Twitter. But keeping these early users might be hard. Older apps like Twitter still have a strong appeal.
In November 2023, a company called Similarweb guessed that Threads had 49.4 million desktop visits worldwide that month. This was about 100 times less than X's 5.9 billion visits. In the United States, X's mobile apps had more than 11 times the monthly active users compared to Threads in November 2023. On July 3, 2024, Zuckerberg said that Threads had over 175 million monthly active users.
Popularity in Taiwan
Threads became very popular in Taiwan because of the 2024 presidential election. Many Taiwanese users who supported the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) started using the platform. In 2024, DPP supporters also used Threads to organize against changes proposed by the opposition party, the KMT, in Congress.
What People Think About Threads
Dispute Over Ideas
On the day Threads launched, Twitter said it might take legal action. Twitter claimed that Threads copied its intellectual property (ideas and designs). Twitter's lawyer said that Meta hired many former Twitter employees. These employees supposedly had access to Twitter's secret information. Meta has said that no former Twitter employees are on the Threads engineering team. Twitter also asked Meta not to collect data from its platform.
Privacy of Your Data
Some people have criticized Threads for its data collection policies. Experts are worried about how much private data the app collects. There have also been past concerns about how Meta handles user data.
Government-Controlled News
Threads does not label accounts that belong to state media (news organizations controlled by governments). According to The Wall Street Journal, this has raised worries. People are concerned that Russian and Chinese government propaganda and false information might spread on the platform.
See also
- Bluesky Social
- List of social networking services
