The biggest reason why Threads isn’t working is because Twitter, while constantly stepping on rakes in the Elon Musk era with approximately zero good changes made to the site in his tenure, is still…not dead.
There are a number of stories about how despite an initial Instagram-based surge of Threads sign-ups, user retention has fallen sharply. The Wall Street Journal reports daily active users on Threads are down 70%, with time spent on the app down to 4 minutes, less than 20% of the 21 minutes users were spending on it near launch.
You can blame a bunch of things. An algorithm-based timeline that was initially full of Instagram influencers, celebrities and brands is cited as the main culprit. But as time has gone on, even with the feed becoming less bad, it’s still not chronological, and the app is missing key features like a proper search function and even a working desktop version.
And yet the biggest reason why Threads isn’t working is because Twitter, while constantly stepping on rakes in the Elon Musk era with approximately zero good changes made to the site in his tenure, is still…not dead.
While “Twitter is dying” has been the refrain since Musk took over, Twitter is not actually dead (even if Musk does change its name to “X” soon). Twitter is worse, certainly, but as long as the site is literally still online, it’s hard to imagine Threads surging to become an actual meaningful alternative.
