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Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri announced he expects Threads to become a “de facto platform” for online public conversations. He said this as a response to a question from a user asking, “What do you think ‘success’ looks like for Threads in one year?”
Meta’s ambitions for Threads are greater than what they seem. After Mark Zuckerberg said Threads has a good chance of becoming a “billion-person public conversations app,” Instagram CEO now hopes it can become the central platform for public conversations online. Threads now has nearly 100 million monthly active users.
According to Mosseri, they’re now debating the idea internally. “I do think the long-term aspiration is to be the de facto platform for public conversations online, which is about cultural relevance as much as it is about the overall size of Threads,” Mosseri added.
Mosseri says Threads can surpass X and become the largest public conversation platform
Meta’s announcement coincides with the first anniversary of Elon Musk taking over X (Twitter). Threads was actually Meta’s response to Musk’s ambitions of turning X into a crossroad for online public conversations. However, Mosseri admits Threads isn’t yet the largest public conversation platform, and X currently holds the title.
Instagram’s CEO added that Threads has a chance of surpassing X, even though X has “got a big head start, and we’ve got a long way to go.” Additionally, Mosseri said the team is focused on improving the core experience every week, and “Little by little, I think we can continue to build momentum and get there.”
Mosseri also explained the user’s requested features, including “some version of hashtags or tags” that help users find things by topic. He said while such features could be helpful, they can’t “meaningfully change the trajectory of the app.” Instagram CEO noted the Threads web version isn’t yet a primary focus for the company, and iOS and Android apps have way more usage.
Finally, Mosseri said they’re looking for a way to facilitate the integration between teams that work on Instagram and Threads. That’s probably why Meta has recently started cross-posting Threads posts to Facebook feed and Instagram.
The rivalry between X and Threads is reaching an interesting point where both platforms want to add more appealing services and features. Despite Threads’ plan to get away from the news, X plans to launch a newswire service called XWire. Threads also offers a free edit button that doesn’t require a premium subscription.