Back in July, Meta (the parent company of Facebook and Instagram) launched a new platform: Threads. It was to be a rival to X (aka Twitter) and within four days they had over 100 millions users!

A month after Launch Day, I wrote a blog about my first impressions of the platform – if you missed it, check it out now.

Back then, I said it would really interesting to see how future updates would change the platform. So what’s it like now, three months after Launch Day?

A quiet space

When Threads first launched, I like many others, particularly loved the relaxed and supportive environment. Honestly, I didn’t expect this to last. I thought it was due to no-one having a clue what they were doing or why they were there. But I was wrong!

By Adam Mosseri’s own admission, the number of regular Threads users has drastically reduced and is no longer where they hoped it would be. That’s not necessarily bad news for us though! Sometimes being on a quieter platform means you don’t need to shout so loud to be heard.

New features and their affects

Threads launched before it was really ready and so it’s been a bit of a work in progress. The big updates have been:

• A following tab. This was quite an early update and it was amazing! It make it so much easier to teach the algorithm what we wanted to see and it gave us a load more control over our Threads experience.

• The ability to search for words. Early on, we could only search for people. This update made it easier to discover new people, but also means we had to start thinking about the keywords we were using in our posts.

• The web version means that we can now access Threads from the computer. To be honest, I’m still team phone, but the web version is really clean and easy to use.

Coming soon…

I’m not going to lie, it’s still a work in progress, and they are currently rolling out some interesting features:

• An edit button. That’s right! For five minutes after you press ‘Post’ you’ll be able to back and change what you’ve written.

• An Audio post. I was surprised about this one as Threads has been advertised as a Text Based Platform, but I think it could be really interesting.

From December, you’ll also be able to delete your Threads account without it deleting your Instagram! Currently Threads is set up as a subsection of Instagram, but it will soon be more independent.

So is Threads still alive?

The simple answer is yes.

That being said, it’s a platform where engagement is key. If you don’t have time to actively engage, there is almost no point in posting.

Like any new platform, it’s a bit of a gamble. Do you invest time now, grow a strong follower base and risk losing it if the platform fails? Or do you wait and see how it evolves and risk having to shout a little louder to be heard? Unfortunately, I can’t help you with that decision, it’s up to you – but if you fancy a chat about it, I’ll probably be hanging out on Threads.