Ask HN: Is Threads dead? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Is Threads dead?

23 pointsthiht27 comments

Threads was the next big thing, but after a few months I don’t hear anything about it anymore. Is it already dead?

Another month in and I think we have enough data and given Threads enough time to overtake Twitter / X in traffic and to hollow the entire platform in "extremely rapid fashion" according to a previously wild claim [0].

Threads is the one plummeting in "extremely rapid fashion", losing 81% of their DAUs. [1] That doesn't mean that it is dead, it just means that not only the media desperately projected these hype stories for their Threads clickbait but it ultimately failed to overtake Twitter / X. Even more statistics here [2] and here [3] show that Threads was hardly the "Twitter / X killer" as predicted.

Both will co-exist, but it seems that there is an extreme exaggeration in expectations for Threads as the "Twitter / X killer", but the best alternative against a long list of actual dead and unsustainable non-starters.

For Threads to have around 8 million daily active users it means it is still easily eclipses the smaller competitors and the entire daily and monthly active usage of the whole Fediverse in less than three months according, to the stats here under "Average All Active Users by Month". [4]

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36580669

[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/threads-meta-app-decrease-da...

[2] https://www.businessofapps.com/data/threads-statistics/

[3] https://www.similarweb.com/blog/insights/social-media-news/t...

[4] https://fediverse.observer/stats

> Another month in and I think we have enough data and given Threads enough time to overtake Twitter / X in traffic (...)

Threads is still not available in Europe.

https://www.theverge.com/23789754/threads-meta-twitter-eu-dm...

You reminded me of how many times we've heard of a "Facebook Killer" or a "Twitter killer." IMO it will take something truly new and exciting to get the masses to switch. Although..charging users is a shot in both knees and will likely speed that up. I mean.. seriously, has there been anything on a social network that would convince people to pay for it?

Even that won’t do it. The journalists/media types and celebrities have a network, and none of them want to rebuild it. Regular people don’t want to go somewhere that’s just full of regular people.

Twitter will stick around forever and in spite of whatever additionally dumb things Elon does because a small group of people are too vain to leave.

It'll be fine. They're in it for the long game.

Elon keeps Eloning, so inevitably there will be more controversies that make users look for something else, and Threads will be there for them.

> Elon keeps Eloning

Elon keeps regressing Twitter, and Threads keeps progressing.

It ceased to be a matter of "if", and it's now a "when".

Also, Threads is still not available in some countries.

Is there a club for those who cheer for Elon just because of all the spite?

Yeah, but it costs eight dollars to join.

But also the Fediverse will be there for them. Yeah some people like their walled gardens, but with orgs like the BBC setting up their own Mastodon instances, Threads getting the refugees from Twitter isn't a given.

I think they attract different audiences. Threads is just Instagram with text above, instead of below, pictures. It is more pop-culture oriented, and has all the big celebs and brands (way more than the few dipping toes in Fediverse). It's so far also a more direct Twitter replacement — everyone just signs up in one place, and nobody hears "well actually" about missing replies or non-working follow buttons (I expect it will be a mess if they add federation).

All the reasons why I’m happy on mastodon and have zero interest in threads.

> But also the Fediverse will be there for them.

Here's a shout out to Lemmy, a link aggregator done right.

https://join-lemmy.org/

I think there is a lot of inertia with social media. The 20% that use it all the time, invest in it, and make it a part of their lives (personal and professional) will jump ship to the next thing. The rest will mostly stay. Threads won't survive on that 20%, not if the 80% does not follow, because then there is less reason for the first 20% to stay.. Same with Bluesky. Both are clones of Twitter with something from the past added in to make it seem new, but neither are giving the 80% attentus populai a reason to switch their habits.

Instead of posting this why not just search: Lots of opinions on this under recent stories about it

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37254294

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37510154

We’re not on StackOverflow, you can’t just post 2 links that mention Threads and say this is the same question.

I’m asking because I live in Europe, where Threads isn’t available so it’s hard to gauge how alive it is. And I’m interested in HN’s point of view specifically.

Right, we're not on Stack Overflow. So stop posting Ask HNs.

Read those two threads. They have lots of comments on how people have been using or not using Threads and the trend in usage/DAUs etc and how ppl see the social media evolution.

I’m sorry are you a mod or just a wannabe mod? These threads are unrelated to my question so stop bothering. And don’t tell me what I can or can’t ask, unless you’re an actual mod.

> Instead of posting (..)

None of your suggestions are relevant. Please don't add noise to an otherwise interesting discussion. Downvoted the submission and move on.

What about bluesky? How on earth are they still invite only? Seems like they're missing the boat repeatedly.

They're missing the boat so much, they're getting record usage

https://techcrunch.com/2023/09/22/bluesky-saw-record-usage-a...

> That rush of new users had even prompted Bluesky to halt new user sign-ups for a time as the website buckled under the influx of traffic.

When you have to close the gates due to not being able to handle the demand, I would consider that missing the boat. Fact is there's still one team in charge of who gets an account, not very distributed of them.

On one hand I don't want to dismiss the teams effort, I can appreciate going slow and doing it right, but as far as I'm concerned the whole twitter genre of social media is a little played out, we're not going to see the enthusiasm or growth that we did 10 years ago, all they can do is siphon users from the other twitter clones.

Did you read the article? Bluesky has <1 million DAU. Mastodon has 8 million DAU. Threads went from 50 million DAU to just under 10 million DAU. Twitter has 237 million DAU.

"Record usage" for them, yes, but nothing compared to the others. It's not even competitive with Mastodon.

> Mastodon has 8 million DAU.

Source?

Given the MAU is 1.7M [0] I have not seen a single source for this claim that the DAU is 8 million.

[0] https://joinmastodon.org/servers

I haven't logged in for months but seemed like they hadn't figured out a way to moderate in a distributed way, they are dependent on the developers to gatekeep and ban the undesirables (eg anyone accused of being a nazi/transphobe)

luckily the nazis and transphobes get dealt with real quick. occasionally not so quick, but in the end, they get booted.

I'm happy for the community that got to keep their clubhouse safe, but I'm curious to your perspective, how should moderation happen in the future when there isn't one team of developers in control?

I'm not sure, but I think the answer might involved shared blocklists.

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