Instagram Threads is gaining traction after growth stalled last year, which saw some premature changes. wondering if the app was already dead. In fact, Threads continues to grow, having tripled its downloads month over month in December, giving it a place in the top 10 most downloaded apps of the month in both the App Store and the App Store. Google Play.
According to data from the application intelligence firm Application Figures, Threads recorded 12 million new downloads in December 2023, earning it the #4 spot on the top download charts in Apple's App Store. It also garnered 16 million downloads on Google Play, giving it the No. 8 spot. In both stores combined, it was the No. 6 app in terms of new installs. In other words, he's not dead yet.
Image credits: Application Figures
Threads had a record-breaking launch, reaching 100 million registered users in its first five days. However, the app saw its daily downloads decline from last September until the end of the year. But in December, Threads was growing again, likely due to the boost Meta had given the app by showing ads on Facebook featuring Threads' viral posts. Today there is approximately 160 million Threads users, according to a tracker. Active users have also likely grown since Meta's last update to the app during its October earnings, when the company said Threads had fewer than 100 million monthly active users. (Meta reports its next earnings on February 1.)
The app could also benefit from its move to “fediverso,” the social network committed to interconnected servers that communicate via the ActivityPub protocol, like Mastodon. Although Threads is slowly moving to integrate with ActivityPub, knowing that it will soon be a place where users can interact with another sizable community, and where many former Twitter users have since landed, could have helped in Threads' reputation and adoption.
Additionally, Threads recently announced the launch an endpoint, allowing third-party website and app developers to use a dynamic URL to populate text in the Threads composer. For example, there are now a website where anyone can generate links to share threads and profile insignia. Marketing tools provider Shareaholic also just launched sharing buttons on Threads for websites, including mobile and desktop sites.
This flurry of activity around Threads is helping the app rise up the chart rankings, although it's likely that some inorganic boosts from Meta itself are also responsible for the increase in downloads, given the size.
Although Threads was in the top 10 apps by downloads last month, it didn't make the top 5… but its parent company did.
Instagram became the number one most downloaded app in December with a combined total of 54 million installs from the App Store and Google Play, surpassing TikTok for first place. This could be a first sign that people are starting to tire of TikTok's push into e-commerce, which has turned the video app into an influencer-driven QVC. TikTok remains a hugely popular app, but its growth has begun to slow amid consumer complaints that TikTok shop is ruining the app experience.
It seems Instagram's TikTok competitor Reels could now be benefiting from the backlash.
As for Threads' direct rival, X, the company formerly known as Twitter is still feeling the impacts of its rebrand, although X added “formerly Twitter” to its App Store listing in September to rank at the top of search results for his former name.
In December, the app had only an estimated 8.5 million installs, Appfigures told TechCrunch. That made it the 29th most downloaded app on the App Store and 46th on Google Play. This is far behind other major social media apps and even productivity apps like Zoom, the data indicates.
Image credits: Application Figures
