Meta says Threads has crossed 500 million monthly users, a major scale marker for the text-based social app as it approaches its third anniversary. The company is tying some of that momentum to its in-app communities feature, which is becoming a bigger part of how Threads tries to feel less like a broadcast feed and more like a place for specific conversations.
The number is also a reminder of how quickly Threads has grown with Meta behind it. The app launched with a built-in advantage from Instagram, including imported social graphs and heavy promotion across Meta’s larger apps. Meta now says more people are opening Threads directly over time, rather than arriving through Instagram or Facebook. That claim has not been independently verified, but it points to the shift Meta wants investors and users to see: Threads becoming a standalone habit, not just an Instagram side door.
Monthly users are only part of the story
A half-billion monthly users is a meaningful milestone, but monthly active users tend to be the most generous way to frame a social network’s scale. Meta has not provided a fresh specific daily active user figure for Threads. The last publicly discussed figure in the supplied material was 150 million daily active users in October, and the company has only said more broadly that daily usage is growing strongly year over year globally.
That gap matters because daily users are often a clearer signal of habit and loyalty. Threads can be large in monthly reach while still working to deepen the kind of daily engagement that makes a social platform feel indispensable.
Meta has also pointed to stronger traction in parts of Asia, especially South Korea and Japan, where it says time spent has risen sharply compared with last year. Those figures are company-provided and have not been independently verified, but they suggest Threads is looking beyond its early launch markets for its next stage of growth.
New community tools are doing the heavy lifting
Meta is also adding more features around communities, including a discovery hub designed to help users find relevant groups and badges for top contributors. A live chats feature is also expected to expand more broadly by July, though the exact rollout timing should be treated as dependent on Meta’s schedule.
The product direction is clear: Threads wants to organize users around interests, not just the people they already follow. That could make the service more useful for real-time discussion, especially if users can find active communities without waiting for the recommendation feed to guess correctly.
Threads is still not a major revenue story
Meta has rolled out ads on Threads in many countries, but the app is not yet being positioned as a major contributor to the company’s financial results. Meta CFO Susan Li said in April that Threads is not expected to be a meaningful driver of revenue growth in 2026.
That gives Threads a different kind of pressure. Meta has time to keep shaping the app, but it also needs to prove that growth can turn into durable engagement before advertising becomes central to the pitch.
The next test may be control. Threads is adding “your algo” settings similar to controls added to Instagram, giving users a more private way to tune recommendations. Earlier algorithm tweaks were tied to public “dear algo” posts, while the new controls are meant to keep those preferences private. Meta still appears to be keeping the changes temporary, which means users may need to revisit them. Even so, better controls could help Threads feel more relevant if the app wants those 500 million monthly users to keep coming back.