Threads surpasses X in mobile app popularity - report
Kyiv • UNN
Threads has overtaken X in terms of daily active users on its mobile app, reaching 141.5 million compared to X's 125 million. However, X remains the leader in web browsers.
Threads has become more popular than X in the mobile app, although X is still the microblogging champion in browsers, according to a Similarweb report, UNN writes with reference to Gizmodo.
Details
Last year, according to a report by analytics company Similarweb, Threads briefly surpassed X in terms of daily active users in the mobile app. Then the metrics of the two platforms in this indicator more or less equalized for a while, before Threads reached a larger number of daily active users in October, also according to Similarweb. According to the latest Similarweb report, Threads still significantly outperforms competitors in terms of daily active users on iOS and Android.
About two weeks ago, Threads' daily active users reached 141.5 million, while X's Android and iOS apps had only 125 million.
X still significantly outperforms other platforms for web users, which is an important indicator and points to wider adoption. Last September, according to Forbes, X.com had 140.7 million daily active users, while Threads had only 7.7 million.
"It should be noted that unlike X - and, by the way, another X clone, Bluesky - Threads is a subsidiary of a more popular social media app than any of these: Instagram. Meta redirects Instagram users to Threads and vice versa, which obviously significantly increases the reach of both platforms. And that's not to mention that both platforms exist under the umbrella of Facebook," the publication writes.
And, the publication writes, while Threads' rise above X reflects a long-term growth trend rather than a short-term surge, it is also worth noting that this shift comes amid a rather unpleasant scandal in which a chatbot run by X's parent company recently "ran wild" on the platform, creating deepfake photos of people in bikinis without users' consent.
According to a report by Appfigures, cited by TechCrunch, Bluesky also experienced a surge in downloads amid the scandal - at one point, daily downloads increased by 50% compared to the period before the deepfake crisis at its competitor.