Meta Threads' Engagement Crashes After Red-Hot Start

Meta's new text-based social media platform, Threads, saw a surge in sign-ups after its launch last week, but engagement has since dropped off significantly.

According to a report by NBC News citing data from Sensor Tower and Similarweb, Threads saw a dropoff of more than 25% in daily active users between its July 7 peak and Monday. The average amount of time U.S. users spent on the app also dropped by more than half, from about 20 minutes on July 6 to just over 8 minutes on July 10.

The drop in engagement on Threads is likely to be a concern for Meta, as it was seen as a potential new growth driver for the company as well as a planned competitor to Twitter. It is unclear why engagement on Threads has dropped so quickly - Unless of course, you have used it. The app is still in its early stages and lacks some features users seek. Like trending items, current news, or any of the engagement items you would find on Twitter - including post sorting. Frankly, it feels more like a chat room for Instagram other than a replacement for Twitter, and the entire selling point for Threads seems to be "We are not Twitter."

It is also a little odd that Threads is only APP based with no browser/desktop support. However, with some work, you can install Threads on your Windows Desktop. One thing of note that you do not find out at the time of installation is that if you install threads and link to your Instagram account as it is an Instagram App. This is nice in one way as you instantly have follows and content. Unfortunately, once installed, you cannot delete your Threads account without deleting your Instagram account. So that may be ticking people off as well. If you want to try Threads, we suggest setting up an Instagram burner account first to see what you think.

The drop in engagement on Threads is a reminder of the challenges that Meta faces in its efforts to compete with other social media platforms. You would think Threads would be a slam-dunk success story for Meta with its user base. However, Meta has a pretty strong record of failures when it comes to creating a new app; Slingshot, Poke, and Parse come to mind, but there are more. The company will need to continue to innovate and add new features to Threads if it wants to keep users engaged, but truthfully, I think people are trying to get less social online and more personal online. I don't see Threads doing that.

Have you Geeks tried Threads yet? What do you think?