The vast majority of Google+’s “growth” came from users of other Google apps who were pushed to convert their Google account to G+ but had no interest in using

The vast majority of Google+’s “growth” came from users of other Google apps who were pushed to convert their Google account to G+ but had no interest in using it otherwise, and they made the new Google account signup process push you into G+ even if you were just there for Gmail, YouTube, etc. They also counted a lot of activity in the apps people actually used as G+ interactions and refused to provide breakdowns for those stats, which suggests true interactions were really low. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/01/google-doubles-plus-membership-with-brute-force-signup-process/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/01/google-doubles-plus-... Anecdotally, I move in nerdy circles but maybe 5% of the people I know used G+ at all, ever. If Threads’ reported daily active users count is accurate in the 30M range, it’s already close to Google+ 40M _monthly_ active users near its peak: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/15/technology/the-plus-in-google-plus-its-mostly-for-google.html https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/15/technology/the-plus-in-go... Threads is not perfect but everyone on there had at least some genuine interest and anecdotally people see far more activity than G+ ever managed. I hear a lot of comments that both Threads and Mastodon tend to have more real interactions, too, and that matches my experience where lower follower counts still translate into more activity.