Meta wants Threads to be the “de facto platform” for public online conversations

Instagram chief Adam Mosseri said on Friday that he has big ambitions for Threads: He wants it to become “a de facto platform for public conversations online.” A big statement to make on the first anniversary of Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter!

Meta’s aspirations came as part of a question Mosseri answered in an AMA session: “What do you think ‘success’ will look like for Threads in one year?”

“We are actually discussing this internally now.” Mosseri said. “I think the long-term ambition is to be a de facto platform for public conversations online, which is as much about cultural relevance as it is about the overall volume of threads.”

Mosseri noted that Threads is “obviously” not the largest platform for public conversation at the moment, saying that X, formerly Twitter, holds that title. He’s encouraged by Threads’ prospects, saying, “I think we have a chance to get through it,” even if X “has had a big head start and we’ve got a long way to go.” (Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced this week that Threads has “just under” 100 million monthly active users.)

For now, Mosseri is trying to keep the Threads team “focused on improving the core experience every week.” I think it’s doing a pretty good job of keeping up that pace, as it recently added things like polls and GIFs this week and a free editing feature that you don’t have to pay for earlier this month. “Little by little, I think we can continue to build momentum and get there,” he said.

Mosseri answered a few more questions about Threads during the AMA session. He believes there is “some version of hashtags or tags” that make it easier to find things by topic It could be useful, but it is not an improvement that would “meaningfully change the course of the application.” He said that while the company has work to do to improve the Threads web app, there is “much more use of Threads on iOS and Android” than on the web and that the web version is “not our primary focus.”

Mosseri is also looking for ways to better integrate teams working on both Instagram and Threads. “Because of where I sit, I’ve had the opportunity to really look at all these different teams and what they’re doing and find opportunities to work more closely together,” he says. Maybe that’s why some people are starting to see Topic recommendations on Instagram (about which Meta “listens to feedback”).