Threads user count further dips, struggles to retain users

By Oluwaseyi Lawal

Threads, the Twitter competitor by Meta, is facing challenges in retaining users, as recent industry estimates indicate a decline in app engagement to record lows, just about a month after its widely publicized launch.

The data from market research firms Similarweb and Sensor Tower highlight the difficulties Meta is facing as it tries to take advantage of the opportunity created by Twitter’s management turmoil.

According to Sensor Tower, Threads’ daily active user count has plummeted by 82% since its launch, with only eight million users accessing the app each day. People are also using the app less frequently and spending less time on it.

On its launch day, Threads users opened the app an average of 14 times and spent around 19 minutes on it. However, by the end of the month, these figures had significantly dropped. As of August 1, the daily average time spent on Threads fell to just 2.9 minutes, with only 2.6 sessions per day.

Similarweb’s findings corroborate the decline, showing Threads’ user count peaking at approximately 49 million on July 7 and then steadily dropping to just over 11 million by July 29.

The decline in Threads’ daily active users is still ongoing, with Sensor Tower reporting a rate of roughly 1% per day. Despite the challenges, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg expressed optimism about the app during the company’s earnings call last month.

“We saw unprecedented growth out of the gate and more importantly we’re seeing more people coming back daily than I’d expected,” he said. “And now, we’re focused on retention and improving the basics. And then after that, we’ll focus on growing the community to the scale we think is possible.”

Threads initially launched with limited features and later assured users of adding highly requested tools like a reverse-chronological content feed, a desktop version of the app, and direct messages.

On July 10, Mark Zuckerberg revealed that over 100 million people had already signed up for Threads, making it one of the fastest-growing apps ever. To retain users and keep them engaged, the company has explored implementing “retention-driving hooks.”