Illustration: The Verge
Instagram boss Adam Mosseri has high ambitions for Threads: he wants it to become the “de facto platform for public conversations online,” he said on Friday. Big statement to make on the one-year anniversary of Elon Musk taking over Twitter!
Meta’s aspirations came up as part of a question Mosseri answered in an AMA: “What do you think ‘success’ looks like for Threads in one year?”
“We’re actually debating this right now internally,” Mosseri said. “I do think the long-term aspiration is to be the de facto platform for public conversations online, which is about cultural relevance as much as it is about the overall size of Threads.”
Mosseri noted that Threads is “obviously” not the largest public conversation platform right now, saying that X, formerly Twitter, holds that title. He’s encouraged by Threads’ prospects, saying that “I think we have a chance of surpassing them,” even if X has “got a big head start and we’ve got a long way to go.” (Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced this week that Threads has “just under” 100 million monthly active users.)
Right now, Mosseri is trying to keep the Threads team “focused on improving the core experience every week.” I’d argue it’s doing a pretty good job keeping up that pace, recently adding things like polls and GIFs this week and a free edit feature you don’t have to pay for earlier this month. “Little by little, I think we can continue to build momentum and get there,” he said.
Mosseri responded to a few other questions about Threads during his AMA. He thinks that “some version of hashtags or tags” that make it easier to find things by topic might be useful, but they’re not an improvement that will “meaningfully change the trajectory of the app.” He said that while the company has work to do to improve the Threads web app, there’s “way more usage of Threads on iOS and on Android” than on web and that the web version is “not our primary focus.”
Mosseri is also looking for ways to better integrate the teams working on both Instagram and Threads. “Because of where I sit, I have an opportunity to actually look at all these different teams and what they’re doing and find opportunities to work together more closely,” he says. Maybe that’s why some people are starting to see Threads recommendations on Instagram (which Meta is “listening to feedback” about).
X has big ambitions, too; it just announced two new subscription tiers (including one that removes ads) and has aspirations to replace your bank. But we’ll have to wait and see if year two under Musk’s ownership is as messy as year one.
