Threads Aims to be the Morning App You Can’t Wait to Open
By all measures, Meta’s Threads app had a very good year. The app was Apple’s second-most-downloaded iOS app of the year, trailing only ChatGPT.
Threads now has 400 million monthly and 150 million daily active users. However, the growth is still coming mainly from Meta’s other platforms.
Clarifying the Platform’s Identity
Connor Hayes, the head of Threads, has been focused on clarifying the platform’s identity. He said the goal for Threads is to be “the place on the internet to talk about what’s going on in the world.”
Practically, that means going vertical by vertical — sports, entertainment, news — and tipping both creators and consumers toward using the app more.
Monetization and Advertising
There’s no direct monetization for creators on Threads right now. Hayes is pitching something different: Threads as a traffic channel to other platforms where creators actually get paid.
Threads is testing ads in four countries, including the US, but the load is deliberately light, Hayes told me.
Algorithm and Content Understanding
Threads is testing a new feature called “Dear Algo” in a handful of countries. Users can ask to see more or less of a topic, share their algorithm prompt for others to use or remix, and have their personalized feed adjust to the prompt for three days.
The broader point: content understanding has gotten better thanks to LLMs. “We now don’t just know that a thing is about basketball. We know that it’s the 1998 NBA Finals, and it’s this player taking a shot for this team.”
The Fediverse and Prioritizing Timeliness
Threads still supports federation with other apps like Mastodon, but Hayes was clear that it’s not a top priority for the current roadmap.
Threads used to be mocked for how it would surface old content. Now, the app prioritizes recommending content from the last 24 hours, according to Hayes.
Conclusion
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