Threads usage falls for four reasons, including delayed update to iOS app

It’s no surprise that Threads usage fell from the launch peak, as everyone wanted to check out the new kid on the block. But the bad news for Meta’s challenge to Twitter is that the number of active users – and time spent in the app – is continuing to fall …

Continued fall in Threads usage

The launch of Threads was brought forward to take advantage of rate-limiting on Twitter, which was frustrating many users, generating pent-up demand for an alternative to the growing problems on the platform.

Threads set a new record when it managed to hit 100M users in just five days – beating even ChatGPT’s spectacular launch numbers.

It’s of course not a surprise to see a peak at launch, followed by a decline as the briefly curious fade away. But the scale of the drop-off is likely worrying Meta, as is the fact that the fall in usage appears now to be a trend.

The WSJ reports that analytics data reveals a large fall in daily active users (DAU), and a much larger one in time spent using the app.

For a second week in a row, the number of daily active users declined on Threads, falling to 13 million, down about 70% from a July 7 peak, according to estimates from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower. 

The average time users spend on the iOS and Android apps has also decreased to four minutes from 19 minutes.

Elon Musk is likely breathing a sigh of relief that Twitter’s own stats have held steady, at around 200M DAU, and the average time using the platform remains about 30 minutes a day.

Four likely reasons behind the decline

One obvious issue is that Meta hasn’t shown any interest in rushing out many of the features requested by early users. Top of the list is a chronological feed, which many of us feel is essential.

Second is the perennial problem of relatively few people being very active on the platform, giving more passive visitors less reason to spend much time there.

Third, the most active posters on Thread are brands, rather than individuals. Even though the platform isn’t allowing ads for now, that can lead it to seeming overly commercial.

Finally, an update to the iOS app did at least bring some requested features – but a technical issue with this meant that the rollout of that update has now been paused.

Cameron Roth, a software engineer at Instagram, posted to Threads on Tuesday that the iOS version of the app dropped an update that had many new features—which included translation, a follows tab on the activity feed, and a new subscription feature for unfollowed users.

However, Roth said on Wednesday in a separate post that the update rollout was paused while the company investigates an issue causing networking requests to fail.  

As my colleague Michael Potuck noted, the launch of Threads is an interesting change of attitude for Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, who once said users were nervous about any platform creating a permanent, public record of what they posted.

Photo: Viralyft/Unsplash

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