Meta's Threads app had a great year. It was the second app most downloaded on Apple's iOS , behind ChatGPT. Threads now has 400 million monthly active users and 150 million daily active users .
This growth is still mostly coming from Meta’s other platforms. “ We’re doing a lot of work on Instagram and Facebook to showcase what’s happening on Threads ,” Conor Hayes , the head of Threads , reportedly told The Verge . According to him, the company’s plan is to show personalized Threads content in users’ feeds on Instagram and Facebook , so that they eventually download the app and check it out regularly.
See also: Threads now has a better word filter than Instagram
"We're doing a lot of work to get people away from being dependent on these nudges and waking up in the morning and just wanting to open the app," Hayes explained.
Hayes, who helped launch Threads and was named its CEO in September, has been focused on clarifying the platform’s identity. According to The Verge, he said the goal for Threads is to be “the place on the internet to talk about what’s going on in the world.” In practice, that means breaking down every category — sports, entertainment, news — and getting both creators and consumers to use the app more.
As for competitors, Hayes isn’t just focusing on X, as you might expect. “Reddit of activity that’s analogous to what happened on Twitter in the early days,” he said. “Discord . has a lot of these big group chat-type communities” He acknowledged Twitter, now X, as “the app that pioneered the basic format,” but made it clear that the battle for real-time conversation involves many.
See also: Threads: Dashboard better explains post restrictions
Threads: A traffic channel for creators
There's no immediate profit potential for creators on Threads right now. Hayes proposes something different: Threads as a traffic channel to other platforms where creators actually get paid.
The clearest example is podcasts. Threads recently launched a feature that renders links to shows and episodes from platforms like Spotify and lets users pin them to their profiles . Hayes said Threads is open to other partnerships with platforms like Substack and Patreon as well. But there are no plans to allow creators to post paid content directly to Threads or share ad revenue like YouTube.
The ads are coming, but slowly
Meanwhile, Threads is testing ads in four countries, including the US, but it's a slow and gradual process. "We only do it when we feel there's enough value from the consumer side of the app to justify it."
See also: Facebook, Instagram, Threads: Community Notes testing begins
Checking the algorithm
Threads is testing a new feature called “Dear Algo” in some countries. Users can request to see more or less about a topic, share algorithm prompt for others to use, and adjust their personalized feed accordingly.
