Like many individuals today, I’ve lastly moved on from X (previously Twitter) after all of the adjustments and controversies over time. X has lengthy been an disagreeable platform to hang around on, however Musk’s affect has severely ruined issues—and I’ve been dying for an alternate.
And I’m clearly not the one one, as options have been popping up far and wide. The most promising choices? The open-source Bluesky, which I’ve been pretty keen on lately, and Meta’s Threads. While each have amassed tens of millions of customers, Threads stands out with over 275 million monthly active users as of late 2024.
So, I made a decision to make use of Threads for a month, checking in at the very least as soon as a day, getting concerned in conversations, and posting my very own ideas, too. Here’s what I discovered about Threads over the previous few weeks of making an attempt it out, from the features I prefer to those I don’t.
What I like about Threads
Threads boasts a number of nice options, particularly for these of us who keep in mind Twitter in its early days. It seems like a extra refined model of Twitter, one which’s constructed with fashionable sensibilities (and challenges) in thoughts. Here’s what I notably like about it.
You don’t have to start out from scratch
Dave Parrack / Foundry
Unlike many of the Twitter options which have sprung up within the wake of Musk’s X acquisition, Threads is connected to a longtime social media firm with a variety of backing. Thanks to it being developed by Instagram—which, like Facebook, is owned by Meta—while you join to make use of Threads, you aren’t ranging from scratch.
Instead, you might have the chance to right away observe everybody you’re already following on Instagram. This function doesn’t appear to be out there on the Threads net app, however at the very least on the cell app, you may simply click on Settings > Follow and invite associates > Follow Instagram associates. Threads may even counsel folks to observe based mostly on who you’re already following on Instagram.
This interconnectivity might or might not enchantment to you, however there’s no arguing its comfort so far as preliminary onboarding. On different social media platforms, discovering folks to observe—whether or not they’re new to you or accounts you’re following elsewhere—could be a friction level.
Threads has tons of lively customers
Dave Parrack / Foundry
Another constructive of Threads over all the opposite Twitter-likes is the sheer variety of lively month-to-month customers on the platform. As of January 2025, Threads had reached 320 million users, which compares extremely favorably towards Bluesky, which solely boasts round 30 million customers. Neither can compete with X and its 650 million customers, however Threads is the clear winner out of the comparable options.
The variety of lively customers on a social media platform actually issues. The extra folks, the extra exercise. The extra exercise, the extra all of it feels alive and significant. When you put up one thing, it’s extra more likely to get in entrance of eyeballs, generate dialogue, and finally matter.
I’ve discovered this very true when replying to different folks’s posts. Whether I’m agreeing with somebody, calling them out for spreading misinformation, or simply making a joke, the engagement ranges are via the roof on Threads—much more engagement than there was on Twitter throughout its heyday, at the very least for me personally.
Many high-profile accounts are already there
Dave Parrack / Foundry
I handled my exit from X as an opportunity for a recent begin, and subsequently didn’t robotically observe everybody I used to be beforehand following on X on the newer platforms. For me, Threads (and Bluesky) represented a possibility to re-curate my social media feed expertise.
And but, it’s good to know that almost all of these large accounts that I do know and love and have adopted for years—starting from celebrities to creatives to manufacturers to organizations—are all lively on Threads. It lends legitimacy to the platform, which sadly isn’t the case but for Bluesky (although things seem to be moving in that direction).
What I dislike about Threads
As a lot as I like Threads, it’s removed from excellent—identical to every other social media platform. Launched in 2023, it’s now going through lots of the challenges that Twitter confronted earlier than Elon Musk accepted Jack Dorsey’s invitation to amass it. Here’s what I don’t like about Threads.
There’s approach an excessive amount of engagement farming
Dave Parrack / Foundry
If you aren’t accustomed to the time period, “engagement farming” is when folks put up purposefully incendiary, controversial, or manipulative materials on social media to spice up likes, shares, and discussions.
Engagement farming content material is designed to set off a response out of you. Rage bait is crafted to rile you up a lot that you simply share the content material with others. Wholesome content material attracts you in and will get you to smash these like buttons. You might have additionally seen “Only geniuses can do this!”-type riddles that prey on an innate drive to show your self.
That is to say, engagement farming is disingenuous at greatest and dangerous at worst. It’s an enormous drawback on X, nevertheless it’s additionally there on Threads. Fortunately, I haven’t seen a lot of it on Bluesky (but).
Many conversations flip detrimental quick
Dave Parrack / Foundry
Another approach through which Threads is struggling as Twitter did earlier than it? The nastiness that often emerges in conversations. While nearly all of individuals are nonetheless nice and comfortable to have interaction in civil discourse, some are fast to show nasty and sling negativity over the tiniest issues.
Unlike X, which appears to actively encourage uncivil discourse, Threads at the very least tries to take care of some degree of civility. Along with the power to report folks for taking issues too far, in the event you your self attempt to put up one thing deemed unacceptable by Threads’ filters, the platform asks you to rethink earlier than hitting Send. (Sadly, few do.)
Feed customization choices are restricted
Dave Parrack / Foundry
Threads affords restricted methods to customise the way you browse posts. The commonplace feed is the “For you” feed, which lumps collectively posts from these you observe and these you don’t however could be concerned about. There’s additionally a devoted “Following” feed with solely posts from accounts you observe, plus “Liked” and “Saved” feeds. That’s it.
By comparability, Bluesky boasts multiple different feeds that you would be able to observe, permitting you to actually customise what you see while you open the app. And in case you have a bit of coding experience, you may even construct your individual customized feed that others can observe themselves.
Honestly, it’s no shock. Any social media platform developed by the likes of Meta/Instagram/Facebook was at all times going to limit the way you work together with the platform, nevertheless it’s nonetheless disappointing to see. Could Threads supply extra customization down the road? Maybe. Likely not.
Am I going to maintain utilizing Threads?
After utilizing Threads for a month, I now discover myself checking in on the platform a number of occasions a day. As social media is thought to do, when you’ve gotten over the educational curve and invested your self within the platform, it’s troublesome to extricate your self from it once more. You begin craving for engagement, for extra conversations, for extra suggestions. And with Threads as large as it’s, it affords probably the most of that (aside from X).
Therefore, sure, I will be sticking with Threads for the foreseeable future. I’m hoping the nice elements proceed to get higher and encourage others to jump over from X, and I’m hoping that Meta will make investments the precise sources to take care of the platform’s ongoing points. There’s extra good than unhealthy proper now. My fingers are crossed that it evolves additional.