People don’t usually announce when they drift away from a social platform, they just spend a little less time there. And now, that slow shift is starting to show up in the numbers.
According to market intelligence firm Similarweb, Meta’s Threads has quietly pulled ahead of Elon Musk’s X in daily mobile use, with about 141.5 million users compared with X’s 125 million.
But the shift isn’t really about crowning a winner, instead serving as a sign that people are rethinking what they want from social media, and where they feel most comfortable spending their time.
As platforms change, social media habits follow
Launched in July 2023, Threads was developed by the Instagram team under Adam Mosseri and introduced by Mark Zuckerberg as part of Meta’s broader ecosystem.
Built as a text-focused app, Threads was closely linked to Instagram from the start, allowing users to carry over profiles and follower lists. That connection helped the platform scale quickly – reaching 100 million signups in five days – which is an advantage that standalone social apps typically don’t have.
In mid-2025, Connor Hayes took the helm as head of Threads, ushering in a maturation phase. The team accelerated feature rollouts, including communities, advanced reply filters, a dedicated direct messaging system, and long-form text options. The updates appear to have contributed to higher engagement on mobile, where Threads currently leads in daily active use.
The opportunity beyond the big platforms
So where does this leave social media startups? If the biggest platforms already dominate scale, what’s the real opportunity for newcomers – and are users actually looking for something different as they drift away from mainstream apps?
The rise of Threads shows just how powerful platform integration can be. Backed by Meta, Threads was able to reach massive audiences almost instantly, which is a reality that makes it far harder for independent startups to compete on size alone.
But that dominance doesn’t close the door entirely. Instead, it shifts where opportunity lives. Smaller startups are finding room by focusing on specific needs the big platforms don’t prioritize – tools for creators, better moderation systems, advanced analytics, or marketplaces that help users make money and manage audiences.
This shift is also happening against the backdrop of growing unease with X, which has faced backlash following reports that its AI tool, Grok, was linked to the creation of non-consensual deepfake images, including content involving minors. Investigations by the California Attorney General and regulators in the UK, EU, India, and Brazil suggest this isn’t just a short-term controversy, but part of a broader erosion of trust.
Taken together, these trends point to a changing landscape. Users aren’t necessarily abandoning social media altogether – they’re looking for platforms and tools that feel safer, more useful, and more aligned with how they actually want to participate online.
