Threads remains to be attracting a number of consideration, not less than by way of general downloads, with the newest information from Appfigures displaying that Threads was essentially the most downloaded app on iOS in October.

As you possibly can see on this itemizing, Threads got here out on high as soon as once more final month, after reaching the highest spot on the iOS downloads chart in September. The app has steadily climbed the rankings, because it’s continued to realize momentum, with Threads now as much as 275 million general customers.

Although downloads don’t essentially equate to lively customers. A few of these might be people who find themselves downloading Threads simply to test it out, they usually would possibly then return to X, or Instagram, or no matter different apps they like as an alternative. So this will likely circuitously correlate to elevated utilization momentum as such, although based on Meta’s official reporting, Threads did add 100 million extra customers over the three months main into October, whereas final week IG chief Adam Mosseri that Threads had already seen a rise of 15 million extra sign-ups in November as nicely.

So Threads has now probably exceeded 300 million customers, and its obtain price would recommend that it’s on observe to develop considerably greater than that earlier than the yr is out.

For comparability, X has greater than 500 million month-to-month actives, so Threads remains to be a manner off, however it’s catching up quicker than many would have anticipated.

In fact, many stories are actually suggesting that Bluesky may affect Threads’ development momentum, by stealing away a number of the Twitter cast-offs who need to bounce to a different app. Bluesky is rather more Twitter-like in direct comparability, however Threads does appear to even be carving its personal area of interest, and constructing a robust group of customers by itself phrases.

Will that see Threads win out within the real-time social app race?

Once more, Bluesky is gaining customers, nevertheless it solely has 20 million general actives, so it’s a great distance off, and I do suppose that there’s additionally a degree of fatigue setting in that can make it tougher for brand new, related platforms to realize crucial mass.

As such, I think that Bluesky will stay a extra area of interest platform, liked by tech fans, however not as catchy with most people as Threads.

After which there’s X.

The Elon Musk-owned app has reportedly seen a mass exodus of customers within the wake of the U.S. election, in response to the position that Musk performed in President-elect Trump’s marketing campaign, although there are not any definitive insights to show this as but. X itself reported record-high utilization across the election, and the one individuals who know the complete affect of customers shutting down their X accounts are these inside X themselves. And the corporate hasn’t reported any up to date person stats since July.

There are exterior development stories, just like the above chart from Appfigures, which point out that X is shedding momentum (X is presently listed at 38 on the Appfigures App Retailer chart), whereas partial information suppliers have additionally pointed to X seeing person development declines.

However these are based mostly on estimates, and a restricted view of complete app exercise.

So whereas it does appear to be X is in decline, and Threads is on the way in which up, the one official information we now have is that Threads remains to be not less than 200 million lively customers away from beating out the app.

After which there’s an argument about broader affect, and whether or not Threads is as related or influential as X. Wanting forward, you’d even have to wonder if the second Trump time period goes to make X much more related, as Trump used Twitter to speak just about all of his coverage choices in his first Presidency. Given his new friendship with Musk, that might see X turn into a key focus as soon as once more, which might be certain that it stays a key platform for a while but.

So whereas Threads is clearly on the up, it could not have the ability to unseat X so simply, and I’d be hesitant to be writing the epitaph of the previous chook app simply but.

However extra persons are not less than making an attempt out Threads, which is a constructive signal for Meta’s newest social app.