Fading of X’s Emerging Rival- Threads

The first week of July 2023 experienced mayhem on social media when Twitter now known as X altered its policies, limiting the number of tweets viewed by users. This was followed by the big announcement of another app called “Threads” by Meta.

What a spectacular entry it was!

Threads became the fastest-growing app acquiring more than 5 million users in less than five days. This app emerged as a strong competitor to Twitter (X). Mark Zuckerberg mentioned that the results were beyond their expectations. However, the success and hype of Threads lasted as long as it became popular with its quick launch,?

So, what went wrong? Let’s find out in this week’s newsletter!?

Like the loosely hanging Threads off a piece of cloth, Mark Zuckerberg’s Threads are hanging in all directions, gradually vanishing out of people’s minds and fading away with each passing day.?

Was it expected? Given the huge success with which it came through, it wasn’t however, if true Twitter (X) users were to be asked, they were always wary of the app, because nothing could come close to the bird app which they’d been using like a daily newspaper.?

Zuckerberg played smartly when he tried to take advantage of the turmoil at Elon Musk’s company. However, this smartness didn’t play well because Threads tried to take over an already successful social media platform that people have loved for years- You see, we can’t mess with nostalgia!?

After 6 weeks of its launch, Threads' active users have declined. As per reports Threads users spend around 2.4 minutes on the app which is 80% less than from July. Experts say the decline in the popularity of Threads is due to flaws in the design of large network effects.?

Twitter as an app despite the turmoil happening on the platform has always been an exciting platform for users whereas the content on Threads has been pretty much generic.?

Here is what we think Threads lacked!

• No desktop version?
• Linking with Instagram accounts put people in jeopardy as they were used to anonymity on Twitter?
• No hashtag or the search function?
• Celebs losing interest in the app after the hype?
• Content creators retreating from the app?

Any Glimmer of Hope??

Zuckerberg did acknowledge the slowdown of the platform but remained optimistic saying that 10s of millions of users are still coming back to the app. He’s confident that like Instagram and Facebook, it’d take time for Threads to stabilize and gradually it’d become a huge community like Twitter.?

For the Tech Industry and Mobile App Developers, Threads serve as a lesson and case study to work on other apps.?

It’s not wrong to create another app. Competition is good. Zuckerberg did great by shooting the shot when X app was going through turmoil. However, if you are giving an exact copy to your users, make sure they have features that they could benefit from.?

Threads intended on targeting the whole Twitter audience but they lacked what Twitter had been giving those millions of users. Therefore, mobile app developers have a lot on them to do extensive research on their target audience first.?

Final Words?

Threads have been updated to give a boost to its fading prominence among other competitors. Similar to X, now Threads has a “Repost” button too. Other than that, now it allows its users to have a glance at their own liked posts as well. Now, users can view posts from the people they’ve been following not just the ones based on an algorithm.?