Threads tops 500 million monthly users as Meta expands communities
Meta says Threads has passed 500 million monthly active users and is adding community tools and private feed controls.
By James Whitfield · Staff Writer
2 min read
Threads has passed 500 million monthly active users, Meta said Tuesday, giving the company a new benchmark for its X rival as the app approaches its third year. The figure shows Meta is still adding scale to the text-focused social network it launched through Instagram in 2023.
Meta announced the milestone in a company update, while The Verge reported that Threads is nearing its third birthday after debuting in July 2023. The app grew quickly at launch, reaching 100 million users faster than ChatGPT, according to The Verge.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said he believes Threads could eventually reach 1 billion users, The Verge reported. Meta did not announce that target Tuesday, but the new monthly-user figure puts the service halfway to that mark.
Communities move out of beta
Meta said daily active use on Threads continues to grow strongly around the world. The company attributed that growth to communities, its topic-based feature that lets people find and post around specific interests.
Threads is taking communities out of beta, Meta said. The company is also adding a communities hub inside the Threads menu and giving communities their own visual identities.
Meta still decides which topics receive a dedicated community, according to The Verge. Threads said in December that it had more than 200 communities, The Verge reported.
Connor Hayes, who leads Threads, told The Verge that user-created communities could become available later, possibly within the next year. Meta has not announced a firm launch date for that option.
More control over the feed
Threads is also adding a feature called Your Algo, Meta said. The tool lets users privately tell Threads what they want changed about the recommendations that appear in their feed.
The new feature follows Dear Algo, which Threads launched earlier this year, according to The Verge. Dear Algo lets users publicly post what they want to see more or less often from the platform’s recommendation system.
Your Algo is beginning its rollout in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, Meta said. The company did not say when the feature will reach other markets.
The updates show Meta pairing growth announcements with changes aimed at making Threads feel more organized and more personal. According to Meta, communities are central to that strategy, while Your Algo gives users another way to shape what the app shows them.
This story draws on original reporting from The Verge.