It appears that evidently the rise of Threads is beginning to weigh on the minds of the advertising and marketing staff at X, with the Elon Musk-owned platform including a brand new jab at Threads inside its App Retailer itemizing.
As proven on this screenshot, posted by @ceceruleanwonder on Threads, X now exhibits a “Higher than Threads” headline on its promoted App Retailer itemizing, which is proven to App Retailer customers in the event that they search utilizing the key phrase Threads.
The common X itemizing shows another “Be the First to Know” headline on this identical spot, however to be able to lure potential Threads downloaders, X can also be paying to focus on Threads searchers particularly.
This implies that X is getting slightly nervous about the specter of Threads. Musk himself initially performed the app off as “Instagram minus pics,” which he stated made no sense.
Musk additionally criticized Threads as being run by “smug corridor displays and snitches,” additional downplaying its potential risk to X. But, on the identical time, as reported by the BBC in 2023, Musk threatened to launch authorized motion towards Meta for ripping off Twitter/X with the app.
That implies that, even then, there was not less than some stage of concern concerning the real-time social various.
Based mostly on the numbers, X ought to be not less than slightly involved.
Whereas Threads has risen to 400 million month-to-month lively customers in its three years of existence, X has remained stagnant, at about 600 million month-to-month customers. X has additionally seen declines in utilization in some areas, which implies that Threads’ engagement numbers might now be very near X, making it an actual rival to the previous chook app.
Extra not too long ago, nonetheless, some information has advised that Threads has stopped rising. In accordance with Apptopia, Threads’ lively person numbers have declined each month for the previous eight months, which might recommend that the app has plateaued, and can battle to get to the following stage of enlargement.
Some have questioned the accuracy of those studies, so the complete extent of those impacts is unclear. However based mostly on Meta’s personal studies, it does appear that Threads isn’t rising as quick because it as soon as was.
Threads rose from 200 million customers in August 2024 to 400 million in August 2025. If Threads had maintained that development momentum, it might be closing in on 550 million customers by now, and unquestionably rivalling X’s utilization. Nonetheless, Meta hasn’t offered any updates on development for the reason that August 2025 announcement.
On condition that Meta would like to showcase its competitiveness with X, it appears doubtless that the corporate can be eager to share its newest numbers, if Threads had seen the identical price of development. This might recommend that Threads hasn’t reached 450 million customers but, which is the following huge milestone, and that would imply that Threads isn’t rising its viewers.
However both approach, clearly X has some issues as Threads continues to determine its place instead real-time dialogue app.
