After a long time, there’s finally a worthy competitor to Twitter, now X, and its name is Threads. Launched on July 5, 2023, Threads is Meta’s latest text-centric social media network. X and Threads share several commonalities, as both are micro-blogging platforms. Today’s article on Threads vs Twitter analyzes these two social networks in great detail.
Keep reading to understand their differences despite their similarities.
Table of Contents
Threads vs Twitter Users Demographics
Let’s first start with the demographics of Threads vs Twitter users to learn who uses these platforms:
- According to Statista, 60.9% of the people who use X, formerly Twitter, are males. Females account for 39.1% of the user base on this platform.
- According to Morning Consult, Threads is also popular among men. 65% of the users are male, while 34% are female.
- 35% of X users identify as millennials, 27% as Gen X, and 22% as Gen Z. There is a similar demographic trend on Threads. 48% of the users are millennials, 28% fall into Gen Z, and 19% of people are Gen X.
- Threads wasn’t available to over 448 million residents in the European Union until December 14, 2023. When X’s rival launched, most of the downloads came from India, followed by Brazil and the U.S.
- On the other hand, most people who use X are from the U.S., Japan, India, and the United Kingdom take the other spots.
You must remember that Threads by Meta is still a relatively new platform, especially in comparison to X. Because of this, its demographics can change as it matures and establishes its identity.
The Number of Twitter Users vs Threads
Another way to differentiate between the two platforms is to compare the number of Twitter users vs Threads.
X’s official data account gives us a glimpse into these metrics:
- 250 million people visit X and use this platform every day.
- It attracts the likes of 550 million people every month.
- Users, on average, spend around 30 minutes scrolling through posts and engaging with other people’s tweets.
- 1.7 million people every day find this platform compelling enough to join this network.
- Statista’s records show X has 237.8 million monetizable daily active users.
Threads is still on track to become a popular social media network that people use regularly:
- Two million people joined Threads within two hours after the platform’s launch. Within five days, this figure rose to 100 million, a remarkable feat in the social media landscape.
- When Threads was relatively new, people were spending 21 minutes. However, this dropped to six minutes within 11 days after Meta unveiled the text-based social network.
- According to Statista, there were 73 million downloads for the Threads app within the first month after launch.
- Statista’s database shows Threads has 130 million active users on its platform every month.
How Is Threads Doing vs Twitter?
Threads is doing reasonably well compared to Twitter and continues to gain on its rival. Due to Threads’ seamless onboarding process, it saw an incredible number of signups within five days of launch. People could import their profile picture, link, bio, and who they follow from Instagram.
However, users didn’t stick around for too long on this platform. By the end of July 2023, Threads’ daily active user count was only a fourth of what it was initially. During the surge, the platform received significant attention from the media. Everyone was talking about it and was curious to check it out.
Also, people who were unhappy with the changes on X jumped ship and joined Meta’s latest social network.
After a while, the platform’s barebones nature became glaringly obvious. For starters, the app version was only available during launch. Threads didn’t release the web version of its platform until the end of August 2024.
Similarly, there was a lack of a robust search engine and a feed with only posts from people you follow. During the early stages, the default feed used the platform’s algorithm.
Threads started adding more features to bring it up to par with other social media competitors.
In February 2024, more people downloaded this social media app from the Play Store and App Store than X.
If it continues in this trajectory, it can dethrone X from its top spot as a micro-blogging platform.
Difference Between Twitter and Threads: 6 Ways They Aren’t the Same
What is the difference between Twitter and Threads, other than the fact that they have different owners? The sections below explain the dissimilarities between these platforms despite their similarities.
1. How Each Platform Handles Political Content
Journalists are active on X as this platform helps them spread breaking news quickly. Also, people visit this social network to get their daily dose of news.
However, Threads takes a different approach to political content. You’ll only see political content if it comes from an account you follow. For example, if you follow BBC on Threads, you will come across posts about politics from this account. The platform won’t recommend a popular political commentator’s content if you don’t follow them on Threads. The good news is that you can still change this.
X recommends such posts, especially if you have already engaged with these tweets. The For You timeline on your Twitter homepage recommends at least 50% of the posts from people you don’t follow.
2. The Native Search Feature
As highlighted earlier, Threads didn’t have a feature-rich search function. Initially, you could only look for other accounts with this feature. However, this changed in September 2023 after the platform launched a keyword search utility. This allows you to find posts that contain specific words or phrases.
One area where X has a significant advantage over Threads is the native search feature. X offers a basic search function to look for posts, accounts, media files, and Twitter lists. On the web version of Twitter, there’s an advanced search feature. It gives you a plethora of filters to find any tweet on its platform.
There are also text-based search commands, which you can use if you can’t access the web version. As of April 2024, Threads is yet to offer a search utility on the same level as X’s tool.
3. Communicating With Other Users via Direct Messages
Direct messages (DMs) allow you to communicate privately with individuals or a group of people. X offers this feature and gives you greater control over who can message you.
You can allow only people with an X Premium, formerly Twitter Blue, subscription to send a request to contact you. There’s also the option to turn off message requests from people you don’t follow.
As of April 2024, Threads has yet to offer its users any direct messaging feature. However, the platform may provide this utility in the future.
4. Hashtags and Tags: Same, Yet Different
Hashtags enable you to categorize your posts under a common topic on X. People include these phrases in their tweets to increase their content’s discoverability. Also, when you open a hashtag, you can see all the posts that use the same term.
Threads offer a similar feature but call it tags. Twitter’s rival allows you to use one tag per post. Unlike Twitter hashtags, the tag doesn’t have to be a single word or a long phrase. It can contain spaces and special characters.
Threads doesn’t want people to misuse this feature, so it only allows one tag per post.
5. Creating Accounts
X, aka Twitter, offers several ways to create an account on its platform. For starters, you can use your email ID or phone number to make a profile. The platform supports account creation via your Apple or Google ID. Also, you can connect up to 10 profiles using a single phone number. This is also possible with the same email ID but requires a workaround.
However, Threads doesn’t give you this level of freedom to make an account on its platform. You must have an Instagram profile to create one on Threads. Also, you can only create one Threads account per Instagram profile.
6. Creator Monetization and Advertising
As of April 2024, Threads has no monetization options for its creators. Similarly, this platform doesn’t have an advertising infrastructure to run your marketing campaigns. However, this social network may explore this space in the future.
On the other hand, X offers countless advertising options via Twitter Ads. You can run multiple ads and target specific groups based on various parameters. The ads are cost-effective, as you only pay for specific actions. X calls these billable actions, and they depend on the type of your marketing campaign.
Is Threads Better Than Twitter?
You want to know once and for all — is Threads better than Twitter? As usual, the answer to this Thread versus Twitter question isn’t a straightforward yes or no. In its current state, i.e., at the time of writing this article, it’s no. Threads isn’t better than Twitter for several reasons. For starters, it doesn’t offer the same features as X.
However, this is changing, as Threads is beta-testing several utilities, such as trends and fact-checking. Eventually, it will offer features similar to those of X.
It will be interesting to see which platform emerges as the winner in the Twitter vs Threads debate.
Is Threads Worth It? The Definitive Answer
Everyone keeps asking — is Threads worth it? After all, no one wants to spend countless hours on this platform only to discover it doesn’t offer any benefits. Again, the answer to this question is subjective.
As a brand, it makes sense to be on Threads, as this is the new player in town. This means there will be a lot of hype and interest in how it develops. However, as of April 2024, Twitter’s rival offers zero advertising features. There is no way to run your marketing campaigns to increase awareness or visit your app or website. Nonetheless, the platform can provide this in the future.
Similarly, you can reach a new target audience as a creator. On the other hand, there aren’t any options to generate revenue from your efforts. For example, you can earn from your efforts if your posts get sufficient organic views within three months on Twitter. Also, you can start your subscription or enable tips to earn from the platform.
However, these things can change, especially if Threads wants to become the de-facto micro-blogging platform.
Ultimately, there is no harm in joining Threads, as you can create an account for free. Your efforts to build a following can pay off in the future.
TweetDelete Offers an Exclusive Feature That Isn’t Available on Twitter
This article gives you clarity on the debate of Threads vs Twitter. If you’re on the fence about which platform to join, why not create an account on both? This way, you can test them and see what works best for you.
Twitter doesn’t have a feature that allows you to mass-delete tweets from your account. You’ll need this utility when you don’t want your older posts to affect your reputation. It is also handy for removing accidental spam from your account.
TweetDelete gives you the power to do this via its bulk-delete tweets utility. There’s also the auto-delete task to automate the post-removal process. With its custom filter, you can find any tweet on your profile. You can also erase your likes from various posts.
