Meta Platforms:Instagram Threads: Difference between revisions

== Developments ==

November 30, 2023: Meta Platforms plans to bring Threads in Europe by the end of December, WSJ cited people familiar with the matter. However, to comply with EU regulations, the company will give users the choice of using the app purely for consumption, without creating profiles. Debra Aho Williamson, an independent tech analyst, estimates that the move could add 40 new monthly users to the app in 2024. According to Sensor Tower, an analytics firm, Threads currently has 73 million monthly global users<ref>https://www.wsj.com/tech/meta-threads-europe-launch-98448df5?siteid=yhoof2</ref>.

November 13, 2023: Threads will now allow users to disable automatic sharing of their threads to Facebook and Instagram. Sharing of threads to other apps was widely criticised by users. The new feature has not been officially announced by the Threads team yet<ref>https://finance.yahoo.com/news/threads-now-lets-users-opt-151552020.html</ref>, but a user has seen it<ref>https://www.threads.net/@datadrivenmd/post/CzhTLaXyVKx</ref>.  

September 26, 2023: According to Michel Protti, Meta’s chief privacy officer for products, Meta is planning to launch an account deletion feature for Threads by December. “Technically, it was extremely challenging to allow deletion of a separate Threads account without also deleting your overall Instagram account out of the gate. So we paid particular attention to ensuring the user could still exercise their deletion rights, by deactivating the account to sort of hide all content, setting it to private or deleting individual threads,” he said.  Protti also said that they are working on integrating the app with fediverse, a decentralized social network<ref>https://techcrunch.com/2023/09/26/meta-says-separate-account-deletion-for-threads-will-roll-out-by-december/</ref>.  

September 26, 2023: Insider Intelligence forecasts that Threads will have 23.7 million U.S. users by the end of 2023, far below X (56.1 million users). It will also rank below Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, which will have 177.9 million, 135.2 million, and 102.3 million, respectively by the end of 2023. However, by 2025, Threads users will increase to 30 million while X users will drop to 47 million. “Threads received an initial boost from Twitter’s missteps, but it can’t rely on X defectors to continue to grow,” Jasmine Enberg, Insider Intelligence’s principal analyst said in a statement<ref>https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/26/23890592/threads-meta-monthly-users-data-x-twitter</ref>.   

August 21, 2023: According to the Wall Street Journal, Meta Platforms will launch a web version of Threads early this week. Already, users can see web posts of Threads but their access is limited since the app is mostly intended for mobile phones. Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram said last week that the web version is already being tested internally and that it will launch soon. According to people familiar with it, the launch is expected this week though the launch plans aren't final. “It’s a little bit buggy right now, you don’t want it just yet,” Mosseri said. “As soon as it is ready we will share it with everybody else.” The search feature could help Threads reach more users after time spent on it declined sharply. According to SimilarWeb, time spent on Threads has dropped 85% since its launch. According to the data analytics firm, Threads now has less than 10 million users, down from 50 million it attracted a few days after its launch<ref>https://www.wsj.com/tech/metas-threads-app-to-launch-web-version-as-rivalry-with-x-enters-new-stage-706e8241?siteid=yhoof2</ref>.

August 4, 2023: In the coming weeks, Instagram will add web and search features to its Threads app<ref>https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/04/metas-threads-to-have-search-and-web-functions-zuckerberg-says-.html</ref>. "A good week for Threads. The community here is on the trajectory I expect to build a vibrant long-term app. Lots of work ahead but excited about the team's pace of shipping. Search and web coming in the next few weeks," CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a Threads post<ref>https://www.threads.net/@zuck/post/Cviggu9PdPx/</ref>.

July 28, 2023: According to Reuters, Meta executives plan new retention features for its Threads app after it lost more than half of its users weeks after its launch. "Obviously, if you have more than 100 million people sign up, ideally it would be awesome if all of them or even half of them stuck around. We're not there yet," CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees in a town hall meeting. Zuckerberg said the drop in retention is "normal" and expects it to grow once the company adds desktop version and search functionality. Meta declined to comment on the meeting notes<ref>https://finance.yahoo.com/news/meta-plans-retention-hooks-threads-013409250.html</ref>.