Within its first 24 hours of being live, the new Instagram app Threads, Meta’s new Twitter competitor, hit 30 million users – and it’s still climbing.
On Wednesday night, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg took to the new app to announce the 10 million figure, saying “10 million sign ups in seven hours ?.” At present, his thread has over 37,000 replies, including from noteworthy figures such as MrBeast, who’s already joined the platform.
Part of why it may have so many signups so quickly is that Threads simply lifts Instagram account data to get set up, meaning anyone with Instagram is a few quick taps (and a download) away from joining Threads and having a dedicated Twitter competitor on their phone. Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
This same cross-app dependence on Instagram is sparking some frustration amongst early users who’ve poked around the app’s terms and conditions and have found that in order to delete a Threads profile and data, its associated Instagram account will also need to be deleted. In other words, once you open a Threads profile, it’s not a simple thing to undo.
To note, deactivating a Threads profile doesn’t carry the same restrictions, so you can temporarily turn it off without harming your Instagram profile in the process.
Threads’ initial rollout covers over 100 countries and two platforms (iOS and Android). Notably, it’s absent from the EU due to regulatory concerns. The app’s been labeled something of a privacy nightmare, even being poked by fellow tech giants for being so data hungry.
“Thank goodness they’re so sanely run,” Elon Musk tweeted in response to Threads’ extensive data tracking disclosure, referring to Meta’s internal comments saying people wanted a “sanely run” alternative to Twitter. Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey also weighed in on Threads’ extensive data harvesting.
“All your Threads are belong to us,” Dorsey said in his tweet, referencing the same privacy items Musk did.
Despite these concerns around Threads, it hasn’t stopped the app from accruing a sizeable following in just a few hours. Whether it goes on to be a proper Twitter competitor with staying power remains to be seen.
