I'm guessing this is a mandatory app install on a new phone.
Instagram Threads triples downloads in December, reaching top; X falls to #36
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Re: Instagram Threads triples downloads in December, reaching top; X falls to #36
#52Well, almost every Techcrunch article is negative towards anything related to Musk. So ignore. Might be fake too.
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Re: Instagram Threads triples downloads in December, reaching top; X falls to #36
#53Twitter isn't focused on being a microblogging platform anymore, and X has a branding problem worse than that papa John's guy, John Schnatter. I like mastodon, but it has been described as going to a quiet restaurant only to be handed a meat cleaver and an oven. Bluesky's interface is clunky, slow by comparison. It is run by Jack Dorsey who, bless his good intentions, doesn't inspire faith in his management of a good…
Agree with a lot of this but Dorsey doesn't run Bluesky. The project was initiated at Twitter while he was CEO and he's on the board of the company, but he's not the day to day operator.
Re: Instagram Threads triples downloads in December, reaching top; X falls to #36
#54Yeah, I never signed up to Threads and on my Instagram feed the other day I saw a message saying "Sabrina sent you a message on Threads" with a picture of a girl in bikini that I never see. I tap on that and a modal dialog pops up saying "Sign Up to Threads to read the message".
Re: Instagram Threads triples downloads in December, reaching top; X falls to #36
#55Twitter isn't focused on being a microblogging platform anymore, and X has a branding problem worse than that papa John's guy, John Schnatter. I like mastodon, but it has been described as going to a quiet restaurant only to be handed a meat cleaver and an oven. Bluesky's interface is clunky, slow by comparison. It is run by Jack Dorsey who, bless his good intentions, doesn't inspire faith in his management of a good…
My understanding is that Jack Dorsey has little to no direct involvement with Blue Sky anymore. He doesn't even have an account on the service. As far as I know, Jack has redirected his efforts to Nostr.
I do think one useful heuristic for evaluating social media apps is whether company leadership and employees are actually participating on the platform.
When I open Twitter and Threads, I see Elon and Mark both posting regularly.
Re: Instagram Threads triples downloads in December, reaching top; X falls to #36
#56Google+ also had enormous early growth, but I don’t know anyone who used it beyond a test run. So far it’s been the same with Threads in my circle. Does downloads really tell us much or is it just a vanity metric?
The vast majority of Google+’s “growth” came from users of other Google apps who were pushed to convert their Google account to G+ but had no interest in using it otherwise, and they made the new Google account signup process push you into G+ even if you were just there for Gmail, YouTube, etc. They also counted a lot of activity in the apps people actually used as G+ interactions and refused to provide breakdowns for those stats, which suggests true interactions were really low.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/01/google-doubles-plus-...
Anecdotally, I move in nerdy circles but maybe 5% of the people I know used G+ at all, ever.
If Threads’ reported daily active users count is accurate in the 30M range, it’s already close to Google+ 40M _monthly_ active users near its peak:
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/15/technology/the-plus-in-go...
Threads is not perfect but everyone on there had at least some genuine interest and anecdotally people see far more activity than G+ ever managed. I hear a lot of comments that both Threads and Mastodon tend to have more real interactions, too, and that matches my experience where lower follower counts still translate into more activity.
Re: Instagram Threads triples downloads in December, reaching top; X falls to #36
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
The difference is this is tightly coupled with Instagram which is one of the most active networks already and they can easily cross pollinate the two for a long time and keep sucking up people who get fed up with Twitter.
How is it tightly coupled with Instagram?
Instagram shows previews of Threads posts and even sends you notifications about activity on Threads.
Re: Instagram Threads triples downloads in December, reaching top; X falls to #36
#58I think if we were to see an X killer I’d much sooner predict Substack does it. I was sleeping on Substack a bit but it has many of the positive qualities of Twitter with many of the downsides removed: * Notes are a short form platform but Substack itself is more long form centric. A huge problem of Twitter was excessive short form creates emphasis on snappy talking points over substance, but Substack more naturally…
Substack has plenty of stigma [1], esp. among the type of people who left Twitter because they don't appreciate Elon's right wing extremism, including endorsement of actual Nazis [2]
[1] https://cybernews.com/news/platformer-leaves-substack/
[2] https://www.huffpost.com/entry/elon-musk-antisemitic-conspir...
Re: Instagram Threads triples downloads in December, reaching top; X falls to #36
#59I feel like this is like comparing a teenager’s YoY % growth and a newborn’s. Of course the newborn is going to have monstrous growth.
Re: Instagram Threads triples downloads in December, reaching top; X falls to #36
#60Who is downloading threads? Haven't read or heard any talk on it in months. To be fair, I am far removed from the meta ecosystem.
I switched from twitter to threads pretty much immediately and traffic there comes and goes in waves when people get freshly annoyed at twitter about something. Most of the people I followed on twitter have threads accounts -- most of them crosspost there frequently, some of them only do when they're mad about something elon musk did and then go back to twitter.