Threads’ active users drop out dramatically

It seems the initial buzz of popularity is running out at Threads.

Meta’s brand-new Twitter killer still has over 20 million active users, but that is a far cry from what it boasted when it launched. According to the data tracking site SimilarWeb, Threads had around 49 million active users on July 7 and now boasts just under 24 million.

Users aren’t staying around as much either. When the app launched this month, users were browsing 21 minutes on average. Now users are sticking around for just six minutes.

A drop-off in active users is to be expected when launching an app like Threads, due to it being so similar to well-established Twitter. However, the lack of features and mounting accessibility issues give Twitter an even bigger advantage.

Threads announced this week that it would institute rate limits to combat spam attacks. Many users have complained to Adam Mosseri, the Instagram leader who headed up the Threads launch, about the influx of crypto scam advertisements and spam threads.

Leadership at Meta remains optimistic about the future of Threads in the digital marketplace, posting: “Early growth was off the charts, but more importantly 10s of millions of people now come back daily. … The focus for the rest of the year is improving the basics and retention.”