A Year Later, Threads Isn’t A Perfect Twitter Replacement. But It Could Be

As a Gen Z-er, I’ve seen many social media platforms come and go in my relatively short online life. Some, including Vine, Musical.ly and Kik, rose fast and burned out even faster. Some I have gracefully and gratefully aged out of (nobody over 21 should be on Snapchat), and I’ve grown to appreciate others (I love LinkedIn, I’m sorry). And the rarest few, like TikTok, have avoided the black hole of online irrelevance and become a permanent fixture of my life.

I was especially excited when Meta unveiled its new micro-blogging site, Threads, one year ago today. After Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2022, a number of other text-based social media sites jumped at the chance to take in unhappy Twitter users. Viable options included Mastodon, BlueSky and Reddit. As a longtime Instagram user, I was most excited to see what Meta had cooked up. 

In the year since Threads’ launch, it’s been fascinating and sometimes frustrating to watch the evolution of the platform in my work as a social media reporter. Threads hasn’t proven itself to be a complete Twitter replacement — some on social media are feeling even more disconnected from their communities on big platforms — but it does have a lot going for it. Looking back on Threads’ first year, here are the most standout moments, and the three essential changes Meta needs to address or risk Threads joining the likes of Vine in eternal online oblivion.

Three noteworthy things from Threads’ first year

The first year of any new service is going to involve a lot of trial and error. And a company like Meta is no stranger to the requirements and struggles of running a social media platform. Being part of Meta’s ecosystem has definitely had its perks, especially in the beginning. Let’s revisit the early wins that made us care about Threads at all.

Early days: Recycled tweets and a boost for creators

Threads’ first few days were a weird, wonderful experience as we collectively tried to figure out the new platform. It was early enough that not many brands were posting — though those that were got a major head-start — and trolls didn’t seem too visible. While everyone was trying to figure out the space’s vibe, many accounts relied on old favorite tweets and posts that went viral or did well on other platforms to give them an initial boost. 

Now, Threads’ 130 million users make the platform a widely diverse place, in terms of vibes and posts, but I’m glad to say that major brands’ inclination toward unhinged posts has found a new home on the platform. (Ryanair, Beyond Meat and The Whitney Museum of American Art are three of my favorite brands on Threads.)

One of the smartest things Threads did was give new members the ability to follow all the same people on Threads that they already follow on Instagram. For people who worked so hard to build a following on Instagram, that feature helped give them a boost as they moved to the new platform. Rather than starting from scratch, Meta took advantage of its ecosystem and gave folks a cross-platform functionality that was actually useful. Small businesses and niche influencers benefited from this just as much as major companies and popular content creators.

Fediverse fun?

Threads is Meta’s first (and only) federated platform. Threads joined the fediverse in March 2024, meaning you can choose to share your Threads posts across all federated social media platforms, including Mastodon. Since the roll-out, Threads has added more cross-platform capabilities, making it easier to share your Threads widely.

Threads’ integration with the ActivityPub protocols that are necessary to be federated was a surprising move. In the announcement, Meta exec Adam Mosseri said that Meta’s systems “historically have not been designed with this use case in mind.” 

For people using the platforms, creating a bridge between Threads and Mastodon could make it easier to stay up-to-date with friends in both spaces. But focusing on the fediverse feels like a weird way for Meta to spend its time, especially when you think about all the other things it could’ve fixed on the platform. (More on those fixable things below.)

Meta’s entrance into the decentralized, open-source system has been met with a full spectrum of reactions from experts and Threads users, from excitement to concern. According to Mosseri, Threads’ integration into the fediverse will be a year-long process, so we’ll have to wait and see how this decision will turn out in the long term.

A rare, probably fleeting, ad-free haven

I refuse to give Meta too much credit for this since there’s pretty much a zero percent chance Threads will stay ad-free forever. That said, it’s so nice to scroll through one of my social feeds and not be constantly inundated with ads and sponsored posts. It keeps your feed clear and helps you see content you’re actually interested in. This was made even easier when Threads eventually added a Following tab that consolidates posts from accounts you follow.

With Facebook and Instagram, Meta invested heavily in the development of the platforms in the beginning and then made its money back by implementing advertising models once it had a substantial user base. We don’t know exactly when Threads will start integrating ads, but it’s likely sometime this year, according to reporting from Digiday. (Meanwhile, Instagram is testing unskippable ads.)

Three things Threads still needs

Threads took a slow approach to rolling out main features, launching the platform and adding them slowly over the past year. Those updates have brought a few key updates, but there are still major gaps in Threads’s offerings. These are three things it needs to do if it wants to survive and grow beyond just this next year.

Expanded video controls

Even though Threads may primarily be a text-centric platform, it hosts many photos and videos. And Threads’ current video set-up desperately needs some upgrades. Right now, when you upload a video to Threads, you have only two options: mute the sound and add alt text. There are no other editing options or features, which is a major bummer as video continues to be such an important part of social media. 

By comparison, Instagram has extensive in-app video editing tools, like the ability to record voiceovers, add music, stickers and captions and select thumbnail images. Even if Threads didn’t get every single video editing tool from Reels, even just a few minor upgrades would make it easier for creators to share videos and more enjoyable (and accessible!) for people to watch. Mastodon has similarly sparse video editing features, but it does have a thumbnail selection tool.

Advanced search and deep-dive analytics

There are no analytics for Threads accounts, even verified ones. Until Threads released its API for developers last month, giving third-party media monitoring companies the ability to integrate it, we had no way of monitoring account-wide analytics. Follower growth, engagement and visibility are just some of the metrics that most social platforms track and report in-app, but Threads still lacks even the most basic dashboard. Plus, Threads isn’t part of the Meta Business Suite. Businesses and creators who need and want that kind of data have been flying blind for almost a year, and it’s way past time for Threads to accelerate its data offerings.

Threads would also benefit from a new advanced search mode. Even if you’re a savvy searcher, you’re more than likely to run into issues trying to search on Threads. Adding more filters for search, like by date, account or multiple keywords, would make search a more useful tool.

More display personalization options

Threads has come a long way from being the mobile-only app it launched as, but it still lacks great display options. And I’m not just talking about adding a dark mode on mobile (which, to be clear, I really want), but giving people more tools to organize their feeds across displays.

Threads began rolling out Columns, a feature that’s reminiscent of Tweetdeck but still lacks the necessary functionality. Right now, you can pin specific accounts or search keywords, but neither is really sufficient. I want to be able to curate lists of accounts (like all tech news organizations) and have that running in a separate feed. Or, if I wanted to create a Taylor Swift column, I’d have to sort through a lot of junk posts because it’s such a popular search keyword and topic tag. 

Twitter lists might not have been the platform’s flashiest feature, but it was easy to update, organize my feed and scroll efficiently. Threads columns are still missing crucial pieces of functionality.

Overall, the most impressive part of Threads’ first year is that we’re still talking about it one year later. It had some early wins and benefited from being a part of Meta’s social ecosystem, but if it wants to keep growing and keep its current users happy, it still has work to do. Otherwise, we’ll all jump ship to the next hot, up-and-coming platform.