Mar 5, 2023
Instagram Threads, Meta’s X rival, is copying a couple more X features today with polls and GIFs. The update follows other releases for the new app, including a web version, a (free) edit button, profile switching, likes, full-text search, a chronological feed, voice posts, etc. Mark Zuckerberg suggested on Wednesday that Threads could be Meta’s next billion-user app due to its rapid adoption.
According to Zuckerberg, those projections are somewhat optimistic, considering Threads’ current monthly active users of just under 100 million. In addition, they ignore X’s surprising “stickiness” factor, which is why it has managed to retain its U.S. power users and increases the time spent by its daily active users, according to at least one report, despite other metrics, such as overall daily active usage, monthly usage, and website traffic, declining.
Threads is racing to add Twitter features users are expecting as it searches for new ways to hook and engage users.
In particular, polls have been a popular way to boost engagement on Twitter/X as they allow users who aren’t heavy posters to share their thoughts. By posting polls, you can attract new followers and get the pulse of a wide audience without having to run a more formal survey. You can also use them for fun, such as asking what to eat for dinner or which movie to see, among other things. Musk, who owns X, has regularly used polls to decide the company’s direction after the acquisition, such as whether he should step down as CEO, declare amnesty for banned accounts, or bring Vine back, the short video platform that Twitter discontinued back in 2016.
Polls run for 24 hours on Threads, and you can control who can respond to them, just as you can control who can reply to posts.
Even though younger generations sometimes see GIFs as “cringe,” they remain of interest to online users as a whole. In 2020, Meta purchased GIF search engine Giphy for $400 million, but was forced to sell it after a U.K. competition authority antitrust order forced it to sell it. Shutterstock purchased the site for just $53 million. Threads now offers GIFs powered by Giphy.
Even though polls and GIFs aren’t the most important features of Threads’ Twitter clone, they put the app on par with X and ahead of startups like Bluesky, which do not yet support GIFs. Although some of its third-party clients do.) The features are currently only available on Threads’ mobile app, not on the website.
To compete with X, Threads would have to do more than just mimic its features – which now include audio and video calls, as of today. There is still a lot to like about X, which is both a real-time news source as well as a place to discover trending topics. As Instagram head Adam Mosseri has said, Threads will not amplify news, but Threads is developing its own Trending Topics feature to make it more Twitter-like. Public availability of that feature is unclear.
Also read more on Twitter Undergoes Rebranding as X and Retires Its Iconic Blue Bird Logo
Is Threads Dead or Doomed?
Is threads dead or doomed? While Threads has lost some of its luster, it would be premature to declare it dead. In addition to being an extension of Instagram, the platform is known for refining its products over time. In the future, Threads may be revived, its shortcomings addressed, and it may be adapted to the changing #SocialMedia landscape.
The industry has seen many social media channels learn from their mistakes and become giants. For Threads, we’ll just have to wait and see.
