At the beginning of last month, Meta introduced Threads, a new text-based social media platform that was being looked at as an alternative to Elon Musk’s Twitter. The launch of Threads had been making headlines for quite some time and when the app finally launched, people were quite eager to give it a try. By using their Instagram credentials, users can easily sign in to Threads and start sharing their thoughts with the world.
The app had a whopping 100 million sign-ups within 5 days of launch and was also one of the fastest growing social media sites. However, a few weeks after its launch, reports had surfaced that Threads lost more than half of its subscribers.
A couple of days back, it was reported that Threads is planning to come up with a web version in order to retain users. And now, the web version has officially been announced by Meta.
Threads announces web version
Meta has officially announced the web version of its new social media app. CEO Mark Zuckerberg, in a post on Threads, said that the web version will reach users in the next few days. Until now, users could only view single posts on Threads on the web and interacting with the post in any way was not possible. However, that is going to change soon.
Sharing a picture of himself, he wrote, “Actual footage of me building Threads for web. Rolling out over the next few days.”
As per a report in The Verge, Threads users will be able to post, interact with other posts, and look at their feed with the new version. As far as the interface is concerned, the web version will reportedly look similar to the app interface, with a few changes here and there. The navigation icons will be on the top of the page and there will be a small toggle button on the bottom left to choose from For You and Following feeds.
When Threads lost more than half of users
Reuters had earlier reported the loss of more than half of users for Threads. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed the same during an internal town hall and said that even though the retention on the Threads app was ‘better than what the executives had expected, it was not perfect’. Reuters had cited its source as the audio of the internal call that they had accessed.
“Obviously, if you have more than 100 million people sign up, ideally it would be awesome if all of them or even half of them stuck around. We’re not there yet,” Zuckerberg said.
The Meta CEO, however, added that the drop in the users is not exceptional. The report quoted him saying that the drop in users was ‘normal’ and that he was optimistic about retention rates improving as the company added more features to the app.
“Meta is looking at adding more retention-driving hooks to entice users to return to the app, like making sure people who are on the Instagram app can see important Threads,” Chief Product Officer Chris Cox had said at the time.