Meta launched Threads as a competitor to Elon Musk’s X, formerly known as Twitter, in response to Musk’s acquisition in 2022. Threads was quick to break records by becoming the fastest app to reach 100 million sign-ups, surpassing OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Despite a broader shift among tech giants toward artificial intelligence, Threads has continued to grow steadily. Meta recently reported that Threads has reached 500 million monthly users, placing it on par with X in popularity.

Users of Threads are increasingly engaging with the platform similarly to Reddit. They are forming communities around various interests such as television shows, sports, and celebrity news, moving away from relying solely on a continual news feed. Popular topics include K-pop, the W.N.B.A., dating, and television narratives like ‘Heated Rivalry.’

Meta, which also owns Facebook and Instagram, has positioned Threads as a platform focused on conversation rather than dominated by news and political content. Features have been built to support this conversational approach. These include dedicated sections for different interests, a reward system using badges for active participants, and options for users to tailor their algorithm preferences.

Connor Hayes, who leads Threads, highlighted the platform’s commitment to growing with user intent in mind. Threads has an ambitious target of reaching one billion users. Achieving this would mean overtaking Snapchat, which has 956 million users as per recent financial documents.