That was the subject of almost all of The Vergecast this week – we talked about how Threads came to be, why it launched so quickly, what to call the things you post on Threads, ActivityPub, and much more. All our numbers are already out of date, because wow is this app growing fast, but the rest I think holds up!
Threads has quickly blown past the other Twitter alternatives in terms of registered accounts. The highest account number badge I’ve seen on Instagram so far this morning puts its count at over 86 million.
At the current pace, it’s likely Threads will hit 100 million today.
9to5Mac reports that Instagram is testing a way to use Apple’s more powerful Live Activity notifications to show the progress of your uploads in the background. Seems really handy — I hope Instagram rolls this out more broadly.
From The Messenger:
Sensor Tower has segmented the data geographically, stating that India (22%), Brazil (16%), and the U.S. (14%) had the most downloads on day one. Twenty-five percent of downloads were on iOS, with the remaining on Android.
It’s not official data from Meta itself, but still gives an idea of the popularity of the app. This morning, CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed that the app had crossed 70 million signups.
Broderick didn’t follow anyone and bathed in the algorithm instead:
My verdict: Threads sucks shit. It has no purpose. It is for no one. It launched as a content graveyard and will assuredly only become more of one over time. It’s iFunny for people who miss The Ellen Show. It has a distinct celebrities-making-videos-during-COVID-lockdown vibe. It feels like a 90s-themed office party organized by a human resources department. And my theory, after staring into its dark heart for several days, is that it was never meant to “beat” Twitter — regardless of what Zuckerberg has been tweeting. Threads’ true purpose was to act as a fresh coat of paint for Instagram’s code in the hopes it might make the network relevant again.
[www.garbageday.email]
Jack Sweeney made his @ElonMusksJet account one of the first 70 million or so on Threads and spoke to Insider about it yesterday. Last fall Musk claimed he was providing “basically assassination coordinates” and banned his Twitter account until it added a 24-hour delay.
However, sometime recently, the account was suspended on both Instagram (where it had been active for months) and Threads. We’ve contacted Meta to find out more details.
Correction: The account is from Jack Sweeney, not Jack Smith.
This morning @Google posted its first message to Threads, and a quick look at its Instagram profile reveals the account is customer number 67,461,606. Mark Zuckerberg might chime in again once Threads passes 100 million registered accounts, which shouldn’t take long at the current pace — about 24 hours ago, the number was 30 million.
Update (12:01PM ET): Zuckerberg confirmed Threads has registered 70 million sign-ups.
Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram and its Twitter-competitor Threads, has pushed back at criticism from Jack Dorsey and Elon Musk over its algorithmic feed.
“Both Instagram and Facebook have chronological feeds options, so yes, we’re going to bring one to Threads too,” Mosseri said. Here’s hoping you’ll be able to set it as the default, and it’s not hidden away.
After just one day of operation, Instagram’s new social app is already halfway to 100 million accounts. Alex Heath just noted 48 million in this post and a Command Line update sent out today, but the Threads number keeps climbing. (Check the Instagram account of anyone who’s registered, and it will tell you if they were 1st, 50 millionth, or somewhere in between.)
Where do you think Zuckerberg & Co. will be when we wake up tomorrow?
When I went to look at why Mastodon users shouldn’t worry about Meta building on the ActivityPub protocol, I couldn’t — my Mastodon.xyz account had disappeared.
The problem was DNS-related (it’s always DNS, remember Facebook’s massive 2021 outage?), and after a 23-hour, 59-minute break, the server’s back online.
But it shows how decentralization can cut both ways — while this problem didn’t take down all of Mastodon, it left me trying to track down whoever runs my server to find out what happened.
“It is infinitely preferable to be attacked by strangers on Twitter, than indulge in the false happiness of hide-the-pain Instagram.” - Elon Musk, @elonmusk (1), (2).
“We’re often imitated — but the Twitter community can never be duplicated.” - Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino, @lindayacc.
Threads activated more than 30 million profiles overnight.
Now that Instagram Threads has rolled out to the public (that doesn’t live in the EU), Instagram leader Adam Mosseri acknowledged many of the features it’s currently missing, like “search, hashtags, a following feed, graph syncing, fedeverse support, messaging maybe…”
The spelling of fediverse also reminds us that currently, you can’t edit Threads posts. (Or are they tweets? The people will decide.)
For an example of what success looks like on an Instagram scale, Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg says that the goal is to get Threads on a “clear path to 1 billion people” before figuring out monetization.
This mirrors what Adam Mosseri said in an interview with Alex Heath, about the “champagne problem” of making money with Threads:
If we are successful, if we make something that lots of people love and keep using, we will, I’m sure, monetize it. And I would be confident that the business model will be ads. Right now, we are not focused on monetization. We’re very, very focused on just trying to make something that people love to use. And then, if we get something to scale, that’ll be a champagne problem.
Meta’s boss made his last update seven hours ago when it was at 10 million, but more than twelve hours after launch, the pace of registrations (which consists of clicking a button three or four times, assuming you already have one of the 2 billion-plus Instagram accounts) for Threads hasn’t slowed down.
The highest registration number I’ve seen so far (visible on the Instagram profile of a linked account) is 26,051,591.
Update (11:19AM ET): Zuckerberg is awake, and the count is now 30 million, and rising.
Why is Thread’s plan to use the same decentralized protocol (ActivityPub) as Mastodon a “clear victory for our cause,” according to the founder / CEO of Mastodon?
A few of the answers given:
A server you are not signed up with and logged into cannot get your private data or track you across the web.
Unless you use Threads, you will not see any ads from Threads.
even if Threads abandoned ActivityPub down the line, where we would end up is exactly where we are now
Even if you follow or send a message to a Threads user from your Mastodon account, Threads will not be able to collect any of your private information except the message you sent.
It’s worth reading, even if seeing Meta getting ready to plug millions of users into the fediverse has you a bit worried about the future of other Twitter alternatives.
[Mastodon Blog]
Launching a new social network on the back of one that has over a billion users has its advantages — new user accounts on Threads are already showing registration numbers beyond 2 million just two hours after its launch, which Mark Zuckerberg confirmed with a post.
Before the app opened its doors at 7PM ET, there were fewer than 3,000 registered accounts.
If you’re wondering what your number is — it’s listed on your account on Instagram after you join Threads. The official @TheVerge Threads account is #45,093.
Mark Zuckerberg logged in to his rarely-used Twitter account to post a quick joke on the day Instagram launched Threads, an app that is trying to be a lot like Twitter.
The leaker who’s uncovered so many features and unmentioned details in apps like Twitter and Instagram, now works for Meta on its new social platform.
That’s one way to keep her from finding and posting future Threads leaks; congratulations Jane!
Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri agrees with us that posts on Threads are “kind of” tweets, so maybe we can find a middle ground.
The ‘volatility’ of Twitter under Elon Musk has opened a window to compete. It’s a ‘risky’ bet worth trying, says Instagram boss Adam Mosseri.
If you didn’t already know Instagram’s Threads app is close to launching, perhaps a post from Adam Mosseri will seal the deal.
Adam Mosseri is so sick of Apple’s disappointing assistant that he switched back to Android. But he wouldn’t risk missing out on Instagram’s new platform, Threads, just to use Google Assistant... would he?
You’d be excused for noticing that the name of Meta’s new Twitter competitor is very familiar. It already launched a different clone app tied to Instagram under the same name in 2019.
Like Google Currents (which entered the Google Graveyard in 2014 and in 2023), Instagram’s Threads name is being recycled after the first iteration was a messaging platform made for “close sharing” that was supposed to do battle with Snapchat until it shut down at the end of 2021.
Hopefully, this version of Threads has a better outcome.
Responding to Meta blocking news on its platforms there over a new law requiring platform owners to negotiate with and pay news publishers for content, Minister of Canadian Heritage Pablo Rodriguez announced the country will no longer buy ads on Facebook:
We cannot continue paying advertising dollars to Meta while they refuse to pay their fair share to Canadian news organizations.
Two major Canadian firms, Quebecor and Cogeco Communications, also announced they and their subsidiaries are suspending advertising on Meta’s platforms.
The Twitter alternative from Meta appears set to launch on July 6th, but the Irish Independent reports that Ireland’s Data Protection Commission has been in contact with the company about the new product and confirmed the launch won’t extend to the EU “at this point.”
Twitter user Alessandro Paluzzi, a developer who’s been publishing leaks about Meta’s upcoming Twitter clone, tweeted early this morning that the app had been released, but it was taken down sometime later.
Paluzzi included screenshots showing the posting UI and the ability to login with Instagram.
The app is no longer available as of this writing.
