• by Colin Kirkland , October 26, 2023

Based on Wednesday’s Q3 earnings call with investors, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg noted that the tech giant’s Twitter/X-copycat microblogging app Threads has retained 100 million daily active users, with plans to reach one-billion in a few years. The following day, the app launched polls and GIFs.

“We’re three months in now, and I’m very happy with the trajectory,” Zuckerberg said about Threads. “I’ve thought for a long time that there should be a billion-person public conversation app that’s a bit more positive, and I think that if we keep at this for a few more years then I think we have a good chance of achieving our vision there.”

In comparison, X owner Elon Musk and CEO Linda Yaccarino have reported about 253 million daily active users and 550 million monthly active users on the app formerly known as Twitter.

Meta-owned Instagram head Adam Mosseri commented on Zuckerberg’s announcement, posting that the company is hoping it can “land support for Europe, early Fediverse progress [ie. a decentralized social networking protocol], better Instagram integrations, and trends in the next few months.”

On Thursday, Threads added two additional X-like features to its in-app repertoire, including polls and GIFs.

X users have long used polls to increase their follower count and boost engagement by inviting users to share their views on a specific topic, whether it be newsworthy, like how people feel about a certain policy surrounding the war in the Middle East, or just for low-key community bonding and personal use, like what movie someone should watch, or how to approach a blind date.

Threads says that polls will stay up on the platform for 24 hours. Poll creators will have the ability to choose who and who can’t respond to the poll.

 GIFs, on the other hand, may be going out of style with younger users, but remain a staple on X as a visual way to respond to posts. Threads users will now see a GIF button in the post creation window beside the image gallery button, which opens up a library of GIFs to choose from.

Threads has remained predictable in its feature-releases, as they all directly copy the most popular X features. Recent Threads feature-steals include a trending topics list and an edit button, which, unlike on X, is free to all users.