Meta has announced a historic milestone: Threads has officially crossed the threshold of 500 million monthly active users. Launched on July 6, 2023, as a direct challenger to X (formerly Twitter), the platform reached this benchmark in less than three years—a phenomenal feat for a new social network. By comparison, its audience stood at 400 million just ten months ago in August 2025.
The main driver behind this rapid surge was the Communities feature—thematic hubs launched a year ago. They enabled millions of users to connect with like-minded people and host deep discussions on interests ranging from books and basketball to K-pop, parenting, and music. It was this specific focus on vertical communities that set Threads apart from other text platforms and fueled a massive spike in engagement.
To mark this achievement, Meta is bringing Communities out of beta with a host of upgrades. A "Communities Hub" is arriving on the home screen, serving as a single access point for finding and switching between groups. Each community will now have its own visual icon to improve navigation. Users can also track "Community Progress," an indicator showing how close a popular topic is to evolving into a full community.
At the same time, Meta is expanding its Community Champions program to honor active participants and launching local communities in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan with native interfaces. Live Chats within these groups are receiving upgraded features, including the ability to co-host broadcasts with other moderators and share highlights directly to the main feed.
A standout new feature is "Your Algo." Unlike the "Dear Algo" tool launched in February, which required public posts to sway the algorithm, Your Algo lets users adjust their preferences privately. People can specify which topics they want to see more or less of and set those preferences to last for one, three, or seven days. The feature is currently rolling out in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand.
Threads is now pulling ahead of X in the mobile space as well. According to the analytics firm Similarweb, Threads reached 141.5 million daily active users across iOS and Android in January 2026, beating X’s 125 million. This represents a watershed moment: for the first time, a new Meta platform has surpassed its chief rival in daily mobile reach.
Integration with Instagram and Facebook remains a key driver of growth, making it easy for users to migrate through the Meta ecosystem. However, the platform's success isn't just a result of the network effect; users clearly appreciate the less hostile environment and superior community-building tools. Brands and creators are increasingly flocking to the platform, seeing it as a more positive space for audience engagement.
Meta stressed that it will keep evolving the platform by listening to user feedback. Against the backdrop of ongoing struggles at Elon Musk’s X, Threads is cementing its status as a formidable competitor in the text-based social media landscape.
