Over on Threads, the speak of an X “exodus” is blowing up. Anecdotally, at the very least, individuals report seeing an inflow of latest customers and different on-line associates leaving Elon Musk’s X to hitch Meta’s Threads, with some even deactivating their X account within the course of. However whereas customers’ timelines full of this chatter and numerous hashtag tendencies — like “Xodus” and “TwitterExodus” — seemingly level to an enormous shift in customers from X to Threads over the previous week, app retailer and web site site visitors information don’t but replicate any vital adjustments between the 2 platforms.
Threads, Meta’s model of a Twitter-like social community with a reduced emphasis on politics, has been rising steadily since its July 2023 global debut. Earlier this month, the corporate reported a brand new milestone for its text-focused platform, which has now crossed 200 million monthly active users, up from 150 million in April 2024.
This week on Threads, there have been a number of lively discussions with lots of of replies discussing the so-called X exodus, the place individuals talked about how their timelines have been full of posts from those that lately left X for good.
“It definitely felt like a tsunami,” remarked one Threads consumer, @wanderscotwild_art, within the replies of a dialogue concerning the exodus. “This week seems like a watershed,” stated another, @gazzaloz. Many others chimed in to say they, too, had left Twitter/X for Threads or reported a large improve in followers.
The supposed exodus from the social community previously often known as Twitter follows X proprietor Elon Musk’s current determination to wade into U.Ok. politics, together with by resharing faux information claiming U.K. rioters could be despatched to detainment camps and by making comments suggesting that civil struggle within the nation was “inevitable,” resulting in a lot criticism. And that definitely might have been the final straw for a few of those that have lately made the change from X to Threads.
Nonetheless, when digging into the information to find out how massive the exodus everybody on Threads is speaking about really is, we oddly got here up brief. Actually, a number of sources present little to no change in Threads’ lively customers or app downloads. In some instances, they even reported slight progress for X.
One such supply, app intelligence supplier Sensor Tower, estimated that X’s common day by day lively customers worldwide grew 2% from July to August 2024, whereas Threads’ international day by day lively customers remained “largely flat.” International app installs on each X and Threads additionally remained unchanged in August in contrast with July, the agency famous.
Within the U.S. particularly, X and Threads grew day by day lively customers by 2% and three%, respectively, over the previous month. One attainable sign of a shift may very well be present in X’s U.S. common day by day app downloads in August, which had been down by 13% compared with July, however up 14% for Threads. (This wouldn’t assist to clarify a U.Ok.-fueled “X exodus,” although!)
Web site site visitors supplier Similarweb additionally dug into the X and Threads information after seeing hypothesis of a shift associated to political developments. Nevertheless it, too, got here again with no proof of such a change. Each X and Threads had been seeing day by day and weekly fluctuations in engagement which can be throughout the regular vary throughout the net and cellular apps, the corporate instructed TheTrendyType. It additionally discovered that X.com’s web site site visitors had grown 1.4% week-over-week as of the beginning of this week, whereas Threads site visitors had declined by 1.5%.
One caveat is that Similarweb might not have the ability to see tendencies that befell solely over the previous couple of days, we perceive.
One other app intelligence supplier, Appfigures, discovered no proof of an “X exodus” as of but, both. In evaluating final Friday’s information to right now, the agency instructed TheTrendyType there was no “vital change or upward motion” to be seen.
Whereas these third-party estimates may very well be lagging behind an precise shift in consumer engagement — one which may be mirrored in later information — it’s additionally attainable that extra individuals are merely speaking on Threads about how they lately left X as a result of others are doing the identical. Threads’ algorithm might have additionally highlighted these sorts of “quitting Twitter/X” posts within the app’s For You feed due to the engagement across the subject, making even a smaller shift really feel a lot bigger and extra impactful than it was.
It’s additionally probably that individuals who had already arrange an account on Threads and had downloaded the app have now determined to return to it after a while away, counting themselves amongst these taking part within the exodus. Their motion wouldn’t be mirrored in app set up information, although.
Meta declined to share any current metrics, pointing solely to the 200 million monthly active users referenced through the firm’s current earnings.
After all, Threads isn’t the one app to vie for the eye of former Twitter customers as of late. X additionally faces competitors from decentralized networks like Mastodon and Nostr, in addition to startups like Bluesky, Spoutible, Spill and others.
