Apps

Threads nears its one-year anniversary with more than 175M monthly active users

Comment

Illustration of the Threads app logo
Image Credits: Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto / Getty Images

Meta’s Threads now has more than 175 million monthly active users, Mark Zuckerberg announced on Wednesday. The announcement comes two days away from Threads’ first anniversary. Zuckerberg revealed back in April that Threads had more than 150 million monthly active users, up from the 130 million reported in February.

Threads launched on July 3, 2023, at a time when users were looking for an alternative to X (formerly Twitter) after Elon Musk introduced sweeping changes to the social network.

The updated metric comes as Musk recently claimed that X now reaches 600 million monthly active users, and that half of these users use the platform daily. It’s worth mentioning that Musk didn’t clarify if the number includes automated accounts or spam bots.

As part of today’s announcement, Meta revealed insights into how people are using Threads. Meta says most people are coming to Threads for text rather than images, noting that 63% of all Threads posts are text-only. But, that doesn’t mean images aren’t shared on Threads, as one in four posts include at least one image.

The company says more than 50 million Tags have been created, with the top three being PhotographyThreads, BookThreads and GymThreads.

While the metric of monthly active users alone isn’t enough to fully gauge how well Threads is doing, it does show that the platform has a notable amount of users checking it out. Part of Threads’ success is likely due to the fact that the platform is somewhat integrated and promoted within Instagram.

Since its launch, Threads has been introducing numerous requested features, such as a web app, trending topics and an edit button. Although the platform is looking to somewhat align its experience and features with X, it is staying away from political discourse. While Meta says it won’t amplify news in Threads, X remains the most popular platform for people to discuss live events like last week’s presidential debate.

More TechCrunch

After multiple rejections, Apple has approved Fortnite maker Epic Games’ third-party app marketplace for launch in the EU. As now permitted by the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), Epic announced…

Apple approves Epic Games’ marketplace app after initial rejections

There’s no need to worry that your secret ChatGPT conversations were obtained in a recently reported breach of OpenAI’s systems. The hack itself, while troubling, appears to have been superficial…

OpenAI breach is a reminder that AI companies are treasure troves for hackers

Welcome to Startups Weekly — TechCrunch’s weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Friday. Most…

Space for newcomers, biotech going mainstream, and more

Elon Musk’s X is exploring more ways to integrate xAI’s Grok into the social networking app. According to a series of recent discoveries, X is developing new features like the…

X plans to more deeply integrate Grok’s AI, app researcher finds

We’re about four months away from TechCrunch Disrupt 2024, taking place October 28 to 30 in San Francisco! We could not bring you this world-class event without our world-class partners…

Meet Brex, Google Cloud, Aerospace and more at Disrupt 2024

In its latest step targeting a major marketplace, the European Commission sent Amazon another request for information (RFI) Friday in relation to its compliance under the bloc’s rulebook for digital…

Amazon faces more EU scrutiny over recommender algorithms and ads transparency

Quantum Rise, a Chicago-based startup that does AI-driven automation for companies like dunnhumby (a retail analytics platform for the grocery industry), has raised a $15 million seed round from Erie…

Quantum Rise grabs $15M seed for its AI-driven ‘Consulting 2.0’ startup

On July 4, YouTube released an updated eraser tool for creators so they can easily remove any copyrighted music from their videos without affecting any other audio such as dialog…

YouTube’s updated eraser tool removes copyrighted music without impacting other audio

Airtel, India’s second-largest telecom operator, on Friday denied any breach of its systems following reports of an alleged security lapse that has caused concern among its customers. The telecom group,…

India’s Airtel dismisses data breach reports amid customer concerns

According to a recent Dealroom report on the Spanish tech ecosystem, the combined enterprise value of Spanish startups surpassed €100 billion in 2023. In the latest confirmation of this upward trend, Madrid-based…

Spain’s exposure to climate change helps Madrid-based VC Seaya close €300M climate tech fund

Forestay, an emerging VC based out of Geneva, Switzerland, has been busy. This week it closed its second fund, Forestay Capital II, at a hard cap of $220 million. The…

Forestay, Europe’s newest $220M growth-stage VC fund, will focus on AI

Threads, Meta’s alternative to Twitter, just celebrated its first birthday. After launching on July 5 last year, the social network has reached 175 million monthly active users — that’s a…

A year later, what Threads could learn from other social networks

J2 Ventures, a firm led mostly by U.S. military veterans, announced on Thursday that it has raised a $150 million second fund. The Boston-based firm invests in startups whose products…

J2 Ventures, focused on military healthcare, grabs $150M for its second fund

HealthEquity said in an 8-K filing with the SEC that it detected “anomalous behavior by a personal use device belonging to a business partner.”

HealthEquity says data breach is an ‘isolated incident’

Roll20 said that on June 29 it had detected that a “bad actor” gained access to an account on the company’s administrative website for one hour.

Roll20, an online tabletop role-playing game platform, discloses data breach

Fisker has a willing buyer for its remaining inventory of all-electric Ocean SUVs, and has asked the Delaware Bankruptcy Court judge overseeing its Chapter 11 case to approve the sale.…

Fisker asks bankruptcy court to sell its EVs at average of $14,000 each

Teddy Solomon just moved to a new house in Palo Alto, so he turned to the Stanford community on Fizz to furnish his room. “Every time I show up to…

Fizz, the anonymous Gen Z social app, adds a marketplace for college students

With increasing competition for what is, essentially, still a small number of hard tech and deep tech deals, Sidney Scott realized it would be a challenge for smaller funds like…

Why deep tech VC Driving Forces is shutting down

A guide to turn off reactions on your iPhone and Mac so you don’t get surprised by effects during work video calls.

How to turn off those silly video call reactions on iPhone and Mac

Amazon has decided to discontinue its Astro for Business device, a security robot for small- and medium-sized businesses, just seven months after launch.  In an email sent to customers and…

Amazon retires its Astro for Business security robot after only 7 months

Hiya, folks, and welcome to TechCrunch’s regular AI newsletter. This week in AI, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down “Chevron deference,” a 40-year-old ruling on federal agencies’ power that required…

This Week in AI: With Chevron’s demise, AI regulation seems dead in the water

Noplace had already gone viral ahead of its public launch because of its feature that allows users to express themselves by customizing the colors of their profile.

noplace, a mashup of Twitter and Myspace for Gen Z, hits No. 1 on the App Store

Cloudflare analyzed AI bot and crawler traffic to fine-tune automatic bot detection models.

Cloudflare launches a tool to combat AI bots

Twilio says “threat actors were able to identify” phone numbers of people who use the two-factor app Authy.

Twilio says hackers identified cell phone numbers of two-factor app Authy users

The news brings closure to more than two years of volleying back and forth between some of the biggest names in additive manufacturing.

Nano Dimension is buying Desktop Metal

Planning to attend TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 with your team? Maximize your team-building time and your company’s impact across the entire conference when you bring your team. Groups of 4 to…

Groups save big at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024

As more music streaming apps and creation tools emerge to compete for users’ attention, social music-sharing app Popster is getting two new features to grow its user base: an AI…

Music video-sharing app Popster uses generative AI and lets artists remix videos

Meta’s Threads now has more than 175 million monthly active users, Mark Zuckerberg announced on Wednesday. The announcement comes two days away from Threads’ first anniversary. Zuckerberg revealed back in…

Threads nears its one-year anniversary with more than 175M monthly active users
Image Credits: Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto / Getty Images

Cartken and its diminutive sidewalk delivery robots first rolled into the world with a narrow charter: carrying everything from burritos and bento boxes to pizza and pad thai that last…

From burritos to biotech: How robotics startup Cartken found its AV niche

Ashwin Nandakumar and Ashwin Jainarayanan were working on their doctorates at adjacent departments in Oxford, but they didn’t know each other. Nandakumar, who was studying oncology, one day stumbled across…

Granza Bio grabs $7M seed from Felicis and YC to advance delivery of cancer treatments