6 ms·

That feels oddly low. It was released at 5ish PM PST on a Wednesday, and considering they have literally all of Instagram + Facebook's userbase to push it on, i

by dvt 3y ago

That feels oddly low. It was released at 5ish PM PST on a Wednesday, and considering they have literally all of Instagram + Facebook's userbase to push it on, it seems pretty low. The "sign up" was also just a "log in with FB/Instagram" button where the form was already auto-filled. So it's not like people had to convert, it's pretty much about as pure a product-market-fit test you can get. Discoverability is also pretty awful with a ton of cringe "influencer content" polluting my main feed. I don't want to necessarily block MrBeast, I just don't want to see him when I don't follow him. In any case, my prediction is that this experiment is going to be comparable to when they tried to copy Snapchat's story feature or when reels were meant to replace TikTok. These were nice cute distractions, but didn't materially impact Snapchat's business or TikTok's popularity. And in spite of their blunders, I think Twitter is here to stay.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
gtirloni 3y ago
I never saw a sign up form or any kind of indication. I learned about the trick to search for "saymore" from a family member and see the red invite button on the search bar. She learned from some random.
firecall 3y ago
I opened it and immediately saw a post from GaryVee. Who was sanctimoniously instructing people to 'collectively be more civil'. Not a platform I want to use, but the App seemed decent; smooth UI animations, clean interface, simple onboarding with an overall decent UX. I think Instagram people who are Twitter curious will jump on it. If they can get Celeb style Tweets and memes without having to interact with the Garbage Fire that is Twitter, then I think it's going to be a nice easy win for Meta. Not a raging multi-billion dollar success like Instagram, but an OK casual slow burn that offers value to Instagram users.
- pc86 3y ago
  My Twitter is full of two things - people doing exactly the same thing they were doing a year, two years, three years ago, and people saying how Twitter is such a dumpster fire now and everything is so bad and it's the end and Twitter will be dead soon (but they're still on it). I'm not saying Twitter is going to be around 20 years from now, but I do think the reports of its death are greatly exaggerated.
  - Dalewyn 3y ago
    A game I play held a retweeting campaign[1] (common thing for games) yesterday, and it successfully passed their usual threshold (70k retweets) like any other time they held one. That was indication to me that claims of Twitter's death are, indeed, greatly exaggerated as always. I don't doubt some people are getting rate limited, but I also have no doubt now that those people are the vocal minority while everyone else keeps on tweeting. [1]: https://twitter.com/fgoproject/status/1676426390625812481 https://twitter.com/fgoproject/status/1676426390625812481
- worrycue 3y ago
  > but the App seemed decent; smooth UI animations, clean interface, simple onboarding with an overall decent UX Web mobile UI is horrible though.* * It doesn’t exist. Just a page to telling you to get the app. >.>
vehemenz 3y ago
Marketers and influencers have a lot of pull, though. Journalists might follow if that's where the money is. When the journalists leave Twitter, it's over. Though personally I think Twitter was done once they got rid of verification.
- decremental 3y ago
  [dead]
- qbasic_forever 3y ago
  Yep I agree, if journalists move towards it and start sharing news, scoops, etc. then stick a fork in Twitter it's done. Twitter will just be an app to go scream your racists screeds or whatever while Elon posts doge memes and insults people that point out all the racism happening.
okrad 3y ago
Lots of room for improvement like no multi account support, as you mentioned discoverability, and feed options. I downloaded it directly from the App Store because I’ve heard about it through external channels. Are they somehow notifying users to check Threads via their other apps (Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp)?
- dvt 3y ago
  > Are they somehow notifying users to check Threads via their other apps (Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp)? Yep, at least on Instagram, there's a "follow me on Threads" sticker you can add to your stories. (I rarely check FB these days, but there's probably something on there too.)
  - okrad 3y ago
    Interesting so it would seem a little more organic than just throwing up a banner with a button to download the new app and juice numbers
minimaxir 3y ago
It would have had more users if it released at the intended time of 10am tomorrow. I suspect the surprise release today is to manage server load / "soft" launch. Wait until tomorrow for the real metrics.
rvz 3y ago
2 million users in 2 hours is incomparable to any social network growth rate I've seen. Where as the entire Fediverse has 11 million registered users in 7 years. I don't know how that 2M in 2 hours is 'oddly low' but at that rate, Threads will surpass the entire Fediverse in less than 24 hours and will be centralizing the Fediverse when it turns on ActivityPub.
- asadotzler 3y ago
  Firefox, a desktop app in the era of desktop apps when the entire Internet was like 2 billion people got 8 million full downloads in a single day. That was about 15 years ago. FB/Insta/Meta getting about that, or certainly less than an order of magnitude more, is kind of joke, IMO.
  - rvz 3y ago
    > Firefox, a desktop app in the era of desktop apps when the entire Internet was like 2 billion people False. 2 billion people weren't using the internet 15 years ago. [0] 10 million users in 7 hours already surpasses that [1] Firefox statistic. The rapid growth of Threads is no joke. [0] https://www.statista.com/statistics/273018/number-of-internet-users-worldwide/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/273018/number-of-interne... [1] https://www.threads.net/t/CuWGPjwrfq9 https://www.threads.net/t/CuWGPjwrfq9
- julianeon 3y ago
  Consider: these are the engagement numbers for the now-defunct Google Plus. In 2011, Google+ had 10 million users two weeks after the launch.[14] In a month, it had 25 million.[15] In October 2011, the service had 40 million users, according to Larry Page.[16] At the end of 2011, Google+ had 90 million users.[17] In October 2013, approximately 540 million monthly active users used the social layer by interacting with Google+'s enhanced properties, such as Gmail, the +1 button, and YouTube comments.[18] Some 300 million monthly active users participated in the social network by interacting with the Google+ social-networking stream. According to ComScore, the biggest market was the United States followed by India.
- syntheweave 3y ago
rodgerd 3y ago
> I don't want to necessarily block MrBeast, I just don't want to see him when I don't follow him. I suspect Facebook are, at this point, culturally incapable of allowing you to just see what you've set to follow. As in, that four-panel gag meme that ends with someone being thrown out a window incapable.
- ahahahahah 3y ago
  You are certainly wrong given that both of Facebook and Instagram allow you to see a feed of just people you follow (+, of course, ads).
beecafe 3y ago
[dead]
tiffanyg 3y ago
Haha, normally I'd agree. And, I think that's one of the reasons no big company put any real effort (that I'm aware of / can think of at the moment) into trying to create and deploy a twitter-like service. The "Musko-cringian" empire is an unbelievably ridiculous gift, here. Some of the timing couldn't be better. Now, even with that backdrop, it's quite likely "Threads" (ugh, ... marketroids) won't take off like wildfire. But, I think we're at something of a fork here. Either this will be the competition current incarnation Twitter needs to start turning things around, or Threads will capitalize on each future misstep, service outage / problem, etc. Threads has a sort of balanced position, in terms of marketing / uptake. Absolutely not the multi-faceted "cachet" of Bluesky Social, rather, the opposite ... arguably even "less cool" than Twitter (was) ... But, it also has the low friction user sign on you mention, part of an ecosystem incredibly widely used (a winning formula in America, especially, is convenience - about the best marketing available, itself), plenty of technical heft behind it, etc. It could easily displace Twitter, and I think more quickly than many might argue.
s3p 3y ago
>Discoverability is also pretty awful with a ton of cringe influencer content polluting my main feed Give them some slack. Twitter wasn't fully polished two hours after initial release. You need to give them some time to fine tune their algos and come up with new features. My bet is they will soon develop an explore page similar to Twitter's, and will give users options to tailor their home feed. I think yours is a very critical take for a company that pushed out an MVP two hours ago.
jamesgreenleaf 3y ago
> I don't want to necessarily block MrBeast, I just don't want to see him when I don't follow him. Is there a mute feature like on Twitter? I use that all the time.
- weeblewobble 3y ago
  Yes there is a mute feature, both for accounts and for words/phrases
- corobo 3y ago
  There is, aye
- sp332 3y ago
  Yeah but there's also a chronological timeline option that just doesn't show me people I don't follow.
heartbreak 3y ago
> they have literally all of Instagram + Facebook's userbase to push it on They haven’t even gotten to the “push” part yet and they’re now over 4 million users.
SapporoChris 3y ago
If you don't want to see then you have to block, this is the nature of social media and influencers. I don't have a social media account, unless you include here. I certainly edited my browser scripts so I don't see many of the what I consider obnoxious influencers.
chx 3y ago
> I think Twitter is here to stay. Twitter has maybe six months but certainly not twelve before going bankrupt. It's done for. I fully agree with the analysis at https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/the-slow-sad-death-of-twitter/ https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/the-slow-sad-death-of-twitt...
- dahwolf 3y ago
  Not an analysis, just speculative opinions. It's not that I disagree with the speculation, but none of it is backed up. User stats as well as revenue are private. When you put out a strong statement like "revenue is collapsing" you deliver it as fact, whilst it's guess work.
  - redsky880 3y ago
    The NY Times got hold of an internal document stating revenue was down 59% YoY. I'd link to it but it's behind a paywall.

by dvt 3y ago

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

gtirloni 3y ago

I never saw a sign up form or any kind of indication. I learned about the trick to search for "saymore" from a family member and see the red invite button on the search bar. She learned from some random.

firecall 3y ago

I opened it and immediately saw a post from GaryVee. Who was sanctimoniously instructing people to 'collectively be more civil'. Not a platform I want to use, but the App seemed decent; smooth UI animations, clean interface, simple onboarding with an overall decent UX. I think Instagram people who are Twitter curious will jump on it. If they can get Celeb style Tweets and memes without having to interact with the Garbage Fire that is Twitter, then I think it's going to be a nice easy win for Meta. Not a raging multi-billion dollar success like Instagram, but an OK casual slow burn that offers value to Instagram users.

pc86 3y ago
My Twitter is full of two things - people doing exactly the same thing they were doing a year, two years, three years ago, and people saying how Twitter is such a dumpster fire now and everything is so bad and it's the end and Twitter will be dead soon (but they're still on it). I'm not saying Twitter is going to be around 20 years from now, but I do think the reports of its death are greatly exaggerated.
- Dalewyn 3y ago
  A game I play held a retweeting campaign[1] (common thing for games) yesterday, and it successfully passed their usual threshold (70k retweets) like any other time they held one. That was indication to me that claims of Twitter's death are, indeed, greatly exaggerated as always. I don't doubt some people are getting rate limited, but I also have no doubt now that those people are the vocal minority while everyone else keeps on tweeting. [1]: https://twitter.com/fgoproject/status/1676426390625812481 https://twitter.com/fgoproject/status/1676426390625812481
worrycue 3y ago
> but the App seemed decent; smooth UI animations, clean interface, simple onboarding with an overall decent UX Web mobile UI is horrible though.* * It doesn’t exist. Just a page to telling you to get the app. >.>

vehemenz 3y ago

Marketers and influencers have a lot of pull, though. Journalists might follow if that's where the money is. When the journalists leave Twitter, it's over. Though personally I think Twitter was done once they got rid of verification.

decremental 3y ago
[dead]
qbasic_forever 3y ago
Yep I agree, if journalists move towards it and start sharing news, scoops, etc. then stick a fork in Twitter it's done. Twitter will just be an app to go scream your racists screeds or whatever while Elon posts doge memes and insults people that point out all the racism happening.

okrad 3y ago

Lots of room for improvement like no multi account support, as you mentioned discoverability, and feed options. I downloaded it directly from the App Store because I’ve heard about it through external channels. Are they somehow notifying users to check Threads via their other apps (Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp)?

dvt 3y ago
> Are they somehow notifying users to check Threads via their other apps (Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp)? Yep, at least on Instagram, there's a "follow me on Threads" sticker you can add to your stories. (I rarely check FB these days, but there's probably something on there too.)
- okrad 3y ago
  Interesting so it would seem a little more organic than just throwing up a banner with a button to download the new app and juice numbers

minimaxir 3y ago

It would have had more users if it released at the intended time of 10am tomorrow. I suspect the surprise release today is to manage server load / "soft" launch. Wait until tomorrow for the real metrics.

rvz 3y ago

2 million users in 2 hours is incomparable to any social network growth rate I've seen. Where as the entire Fediverse has 11 million registered users in 7 years. I don't know how that 2M in 2 hours is 'oddly low' but at that rate, Threads will surpass the entire Fediverse in less than 24 hours and will be centralizing the Fediverse when it turns on ActivityPub.

asadotzler 3y ago
Firefox, a desktop app in the era of desktop apps when the entire Internet was like 2 billion people got 8 million full downloads in a single day. That was about 15 years ago. FB/Insta/Meta getting about that, or certainly less than an order of magnitude more, is kind of joke, IMO.
- rvz 3y ago
  > Firefox, a desktop app in the era of desktop apps when the entire Internet was like 2 billion people False. 2 billion people weren't using the internet 15 years ago. [0] 10 million users in 7 hours already surpasses that [1] Firefox statistic. The rapid growth of Threads is no joke. [0] https://www.statista.com/statistics/273018/number-of-internet-users-worldwide/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/273018/number-of-interne... [1] https://www.threads.net/t/CuWGPjwrfq9 https://www.threads.net/t/CuWGPjwrfq9
julianeon 3y ago
Consider: these are the engagement numbers for the now-defunct Google Plus. In 2011, Google+ had 10 million users two weeks after the launch.[14] In a month, it had 25 million.[15] In October 2011, the service had 40 million users, according to Larry Page.[16] At the end of 2011, Google+ had 90 million users.[17] In October 2013, approximately 540 million monthly active users used the social layer by interacting with Google+'s enhanced properties, such as Gmail, the +1 button, and YouTube comments.[18] Some 300 million monthly active users participated in the social network by interacting with the Google+ social-networking stream. According to ComScore, the biggest market was the United States followed by India.
syntheweave 3y ago

rodgerd 3y ago

> I don't want to necessarily block MrBeast, I just don't want to see him when I don't follow him. I suspect Facebook are, at this point, culturally incapable of allowing you to just see what you've set to follow. As in, that four-panel gag meme that ends with someone being thrown out a window incapable.

ahahahahah 3y ago
You are certainly wrong given that both of Facebook and Instagram allow you to see a feed of just people you follow (+, of course, ads).

beecafe 3y ago

[dead]

tiffanyg 3y ago

Haha, normally I'd agree. And, I think that's one of the reasons no big company put any real effort (that I'm aware of / can think of at the moment) into trying to create and deploy a twitter-like service. The "Musko-cringian" empire is an unbelievably ridiculous gift, here. Some of the timing couldn't be better. Now, even with that backdrop, it's quite likely "Threads" (ugh, ... marketroids) won't take off like wildfire. But, I think we're at something of a fork here. Either this will be the competition current incarnation Twitter needs to start turning things around, or Threads will capitalize on each future misstep, service outage / problem, etc. Threads has a sort of balanced position, in terms of marketing / uptake. Absolutely not the multi-faceted "cachet" of Bluesky Social, rather, the opposite ... arguably even "less cool" than Twitter (was) ... But, it also has the low friction user sign on you mention, part of an ecosystem incredibly widely used (a winning formula in America, especially, is convenience - about the best marketing available, itself), plenty of technical heft behind it, etc. It could easily displace Twitter, and I think more quickly than many might argue.

s3p 3y ago

>Discoverability is also pretty awful with a ton of cringe influencer content polluting my main feed Give them some slack. Twitter wasn't fully polished two hours after initial release. You need to give them some time to fine tune their algos and come up with new features. My bet is they will soon develop an explore page similar to Twitter's, and will give users options to tailor their home feed. I think yours is a very critical take for a company that pushed out an MVP two hours ago.

jamesgreenleaf 3y ago

> I don't want to necessarily block MrBeast, I just don't want to see him when I don't follow him. Is there a mute feature like on Twitter? I use that all the time.

weeblewobble 3y ago
Yes there is a mute feature, both for accounts and for words/phrases
corobo 3y ago
There is, aye
sp332 3y ago
Yeah but there's also a chronological timeline option that just doesn't show me people I don't follow.

heartbreak 3y ago

> they have literally all of Instagram + Facebook's userbase to push it on They haven’t even gotten to the “push” part yet and they’re now over 4 million users.

SapporoChris 3y ago

If you don't want to see then you have to block, this is the nature of social media and influencers. I don't have a social media account, unless you include here. I certainly edited my browser scripts so I don't see many of the what I consider obnoxious influencers.

chx 3y ago

> I think Twitter is here to stay. Twitter has maybe six months but certainly not twelve before going bankrupt. It's done for. I fully agree with the analysis at https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/the-slow-sad-death-of-twitter/ https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/the-slow-sad-death-of-twitt...

dahwolf 3y ago
Not an analysis, just speculative opinions. It's not that I disagree with the speculation, but none of it is backed up. User stats as well as revenue are private. When you put out a strong statement like "revenue is collapsing" you deliver it as fact, whilst it's guess work.
- redsky880 3y ago
  The NY Times got hold of an internal document stating revenue was down 59% YoY. I'd link to it but it's behind a paywall.