Threads has announced that it’s now testing the ability to save posts in the app, which has been a highly requested feature update, and will bring Meta’s real-time discussion platform more into line with other apps.
As you can see from these example screens, for those in the test pool, Threads’ new “Save” option will be available in the three dots menu on any post in the app. Saved posts will then be available in your profile menu options, the same as they are on Instagram.
Threads continues to add more features as it works to get up to speed with other apps, and X in particular, as part of Meta’s push to challenge the dominance of X, and scoop up cast-offs who’ve been disillusioned by Elon Musk’s changes at the app.
And while Threads recently announced that it’s now serving 130 million monthly active users, it still has a way to go, with Musk today sharing this update about the latest download numbers.
X has seemingly seen a boost in interest due to Tucker Carlson’s interview with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, as well as, reportedly, a controversial video of Drake, which is accessible on X, but less so in other apps.
Whatever the reason may be, it’s clear that, despite the controversies caused by Musk’s own comments, X is still the place where a lot of people are turning for real-time news discussion, and the Threads team has a lot of work ahead of it to win over more of these users, and transform itself into a real competitor for Elon’s project.
Though at the same time, Elon and Co. continue to share misleading data about X’s performance, which then cloud every other claim from the company.
For example:
As we’ve noted before, these stats, shared by Elon fan account “DogeDesigner” (which Elon has also re-shared in the app), are based on web traffic numbers, and do not include app usage, which is how the vast majority of people access social apps. So the implication that X is beating either TikTok or Instagram, in any way, is false, because this is only based on a tiny proportion of the overall usage of each app.
Elon, of course, would be well aware of this, yet he still re-posts data points like this, in an effort to mislead people about X’s actual performance.
With this in mind, it’s hard to take any usage info posted by X seriously, so we don’t know for sure how far off Threads truly is from X’s numbers.
But we do know, based on official App Store charts, that X is still seeing relative interest, which means that Threads still has work to do to compete.
The Super Bowl this weekend will be another test, and I would expect that X will see the majority of related engagement, underlining, once again, why Threads needs more real-time focused sorting and engagement tools.
