Discovering December's dynamics: Instagram Threads sees comfortable growth in downloads, while X suffers a decline.
Instagram’s Threads app is gaining momentum after its growth stagnated last year, leading some to wonder if the app had already “died.” New data suggests that’s not the case — it remains solidly in growth, having tripled its downloads month-over-month in December, taking a spot in the top ten most downloaded apps for the month on both the App Store and Google Play.
According to data from app intelligence firm Appfigures, Instagram Threads saw 12 million new downloads in December 2023, taking the No. 4 spot on Apple’s App Store’s Top Download Charts. On Google Play, it also saw 16 million downloads, taking the No. 8 spot. Overall, it ranked No. 6 based on new installs in both markets. So, it’s not dead yet, in other words.
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Threads had a stellar start, reaching 100 million registered users in its first five days. However, daily downloads declined from September to the end of the year. In December, however, Instagram Threads returned to growth, likely due to a promotion that Meta gave it by running ads on Facebook featuring Threads’ viral posts. Today, Threads is estimated to have about 160 million users . Active users have likely increased, as Meta’s last update in October said Threads had fewer than 100 million monthly active users. (Meta reports its next earnings on February 1.)
The app may also benefit from its move into the “fediverse” — the social network made up of connected servers that communicate via the ActivityPub, like Mastodon. Although Threads has been slow to integrate with ActivityPub, the awareness that it will soon be a place where users can interact with another large community — and one where many former Twitter users have ended up — may have helped Threads gain traction and adoption.
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Additionally, Threads recently announced the launch of a feature that allows third-party app and website developers to use a dynamic URL to populate text in the Threads composer. For example, there’s now a website where anyone can create Threads share links and profile badges. Marketing tools provider Shareaholic also just launched Threads share buttons for websites, including both desktop and mobile sites.
This intense activity around Threads is helping the app climb the rankings, although some unofficial promotions from Meta may be responsible for the increase in downloads, considering its size.
Although Threads was among the top ten most downloaded apps last month, it didn't make it into the top five... but its parent company did.
Instagrambecame the most downloaded app in December, with a combined 54 million installs across the App Store and Google Play, overtaking TikTok for the top spot. This could be an early sign that people are starting to get annoyed with TikTok’s foray into e-commerce, which is turning the video app into an influencer-powered QVC. TikTok remains a hugely popular app, but its growth has begun to slow as consumers complain that the TikTok Shop is ruining the app experience.
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Threads' competitor, X, the company formerly known as Twitter, is still feeling the effects of its corporate identity reversal — even though X added "formerly Twitter" to its App Store listing in September to top search results for its old name.
As of December, the app had only an estimated 8.5 million installs, as Appfigures reported to TechCrunch. That makes it the 29th most downloaded app on the App Store and 46th on Google Play. That’s well behind other popular social media apps and even productivity apps like Zoom, the data shows.
Information source: techcrunch.com
