Threads Is Breaking the Internet—But Does It Have Staying Power?

Social media managers looking forward to a quiet summer holiday last week were in for a surprise when Threads, Meta’s new microblogging platform, launched a day ahead of schedule, kickstarting the fastest sign-up of new users in history. In less than a week, more than 100 million users have registered.

Already, designers (and the design-adjacent) have carved out their niche. Kelly Wearstler—a famed early adopter of all things social—is posting prolifically. So are Ken Fulk, Noz Nozawa, and Studio McGee. Publications like Dwell, Cultured, Curbed, WSJ Magazine, and Business of Home are active, as are tastemakers like Daniel Arsham and Whitney Robinson, viral accounts like Zillow Gone Wild and Cheap Old Houses, and brands like Lulu and Georgia and Herman Miller. Michael Diaz-Griffith, executive director of the Design Leadership Network and author of The New Antiquarians, broke the ice on his own feed: “So…anyone want to talk about antiques on here?”

“The morning after the launch, we emailed all of our PR and digital content clients, encouraging them to enable their accounts and take advantage of this moment,” says Rebecca Goldberg Brodsky, cofounder of design communications and digital strategy firm Dada Goldberg. “As one of our directors of digital put it, these opportunities do not come often,” she adds, noting that the app’s strength lies in its simplicity.

Not to mention its intuitiveness. The interface, which bears major resemblance to Twitter (enough to send Elon Musk, Twitter’s CEO, into a name-calling public meltdown), offers familiar features like posts (which can show text or images), stitching/quoting, and reposting, though the official lexicon of the app remains in flux. (As you can imagine, “thread” puns abound.) Each post can hold up to 500 characters, and videos can run up to five minutes.

Meta’s timing could not have been much better for the launch, as the public’s patience with Twitter and its erratic chief executive has worn thin. Since purchasing Twitter last year, Musk has introduced a number of policy changes to the site, ranging from pay-for-play “blue checks” to a short-lived imposition of Tweet viewing limits. Content moderation has also dropped to a near-standstill, resulting in many users being served violent photos and videos—in addition to the run-of-the-mill trolling that has always beleaguered the site.

Threads, meanwhile, appears to be leaning into the positive (though barbs against Musk are common). “Our early take is that this platform should be rooted in humor, observation, and insight,” says Goldberg Brodsky, whose agency helped clients like JDS Development Group, Landau Properties, and Sara Story Design stake their digital claim on Threads at launch. “Rather than the image-led material, [Threads] will be a place to talk about changing trends. I see it as serving a hole in the market.” Bill Caleo, cofounder of the Brooklyn Home Company and one of Dada Goldberg’s clients, says he’s optimistic about the platform’s potential for dialogue. “We jumped on the opportunity to join Threads and embrace a platform that will encourage new conversations across the industry, from policy changes that will affect real estate development to the latest trends in sustainable design,” he says.