Threads has reached a new audience milestone, with the app now up to 500 million monthly active users.
This new audience number puts Threads on par with X as the biggest real-time discussion platform on the web. X, as of May 2026, currently had about 550 million MAU, according to the prospectus of SpaceX, of which X is now a subsidiary.
Though X’s number fluctuates. X doesn’t share its complete usage numbers in any official forum, and the reported figures generally come via random posts from platform owner Elon Musk.
The image shows the fluctuations in X’s reported usage numbers here, but as of right now, X is only 50 million monthly actives ahead of Threads.
And while Threads has taken a little longer to add its latest 100 million users, the platform is still growing, bringing more conversation and community to what started as a project to gather cast-offs from Twitter following Musk’s changes at the app.
However, even at launch Meta’s ambitions for Threads were significant.
Shortly after the first version of the Threads app went live in 2023, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a post on the app that the company intended to create a more friendly version of Twitter. In Zuckerberg’s view, that would “ultimately be the key to its success,” he said at the time.
“That’s one reason why Twitter never succeeded as much as I think it should have, and we want to do it differently,” Zuckerberg added.
Zuckerberg also said his aims were to build the next billion-user app. Now, three years later, it’s halfway there. Threads has emerged as a genuine rival for X in the live discussion space.
Building on this, Meta also added new features to drive its next stage of growth.
First, Meta said it’s “graduating communities out of beta,” and making its topic-focused chats available to all users.
Threads first launched communities in October, providing another way for Threads users to find more relevant discussions in the app. Meta hasn’t shared any official usage stats for the feature, but it has continued to expand communities to more topics over time.
It’s also launching new communites features, including custom icons for topical communities and expanded recognition of key contributors to each group.
It’s also adding a new communities hub that will live in the left sidebar of the app, making it easier for members to return to their favorite discussion groups. Threads is also launching new progress indicators that will let users know when a topic is close to becoming a community in the app.
The app is also rolling out live chats to more communities, including co-hosting and the ability to quote moments to the Threads feed.
Finally, Threads is adding local communities for different regions, beginning with native language tags in Japan, Korea and Taiwan.
Japan is a big focus for Threads, given the success of Twitter/X in the region. Japan is now one of X’s key markets, and if Threads can gain traction in that market, that could lead to big opportunities for the platform.
On another front, Threads has also officially announced the expansion of Meta’s Your Algo function to Threads.
Your Algo enables users to tell the Threads algorithm what they want to see more or less of, via a direct customization and feedback tool that’s built into account settings. That will then update Threads’ feed settings for up to seven days, which could help to shape what users see in the app.
It’s important to note that this is different from Dear Algo, which Threads has had since December. Dear Algo enables users to request algorithm updates in-stream, by posting a message to the system, using Dear Algo in the post text.
Your Algo is already available on Instagram, with the feature replicating the same functionality and UI on Threads.
Meta said that Your Algo for Threads is rolling out as of today in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia and New Zealand.
