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Meta’s text-based social app Threads has crossed a major milestone, achieving 150 million daily active users (DAU), a notable jump from the 100 million DAU announced in December.
Alongside this surge, Meta says Threads users are spending more time in the app, thanks to improvements in its AI-powered recommendation system.
Rapid User Growth & Engagement Gains
Threads now reports around 400 million monthly active users (MAU). For comparison, rival X is estimated to have approximately 250 million daily users and around 600 million monthly users.
“We’re seeing good momentum across our other apps as well, including Threads which recently passed 150 million daily actives and remains on track to become the leader in its category,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said.
Meta credits the engagement boost, roughly “10 percent more time spent” on Threads year over year, to its evolving AI recommendation systems which now rely less on users’ Instagram activity and more on conversation-driven discovery and topic tags.
Ad Expansion: From Beta to Global Rollout
With the user base growing, Threads is moving faster on monetisation. Meta CFO Susan Li confirmed that Threads ads are now available globally, while Meta is rolling out new formats including video ads within Threads. Industry reporting shows that Threads is ramping up ad access and is being pitched to marketers as a complement to Instagram and Facebook.
Meta’s broader advertising business continues to expand: ad impressions were up 14 percent and average price per ad rose 10 percent in Q3. These factors strengthen Threads’ position as an incremental revenue channel rather than just an experimental app.
How Threads Is Impacting the Social Media
For marketers, Threads’ growth signals an opportunity to access text-based social audiences with a fresh platform that blends Instagram’s social graph with public conversation features. The fact that AI recommendations are improving suggests higher engagement and better monetisation potential.
For Meta, Threads offers diversification of its social product stack and a chance to compete more directly with X and other talk-focused platforms. Its growth also reflects a broader trend, users gravitating toward fast, topical social spaces rather than long-form feeds.
Challenges Still Ahead
Even with the milestone achieved, Threads faces hurdles including retention beyond the early growth phase, ensuring ad effectiveness doesn’t distract users, and distinguishing the product from Meta’s other apps like Instagram and Facebook. Analysts note that sustaining momentum will require ongoing innovation in features, community dynamics, and moderation.
Threads appears to be shifting from “fast grow then monetize” to “grow and monetise in tandem.” If Threads can maintain daily-user growth and scale ad formats effectively, it may emerge as a key pillar in Meta’s social ecosystem rather than a side project.
