Is This Pinterest to be Better than Threads or X of Twitter?
The soul of social networks never dies, it only evolves, sometimes into fragments and collides often. The headline and root case today is that of Threads (the text app Meta once upon a time launched straight out of Instagram) v. X (The Artist Formerly Known as Twitter). Fast forward to now — two years after the launch of Threads and the renaissance of X around Elon Musk — and the competition is more about who can capture attention, features, creator economics, trust. Now for that matter — which one is the winner? The hard metrics The UX and product fights Creator/business incentives Safety perception The near-term battlegrounds that will determine the winner
Quick verdict (TL;DR)
Threads has raced into mobile daily activity and monthly active users have exploded through Instagram integration and relentless product moves. That said, X is the entrenched public square for news, politics and communities with longer legs — also still holds overall user base hegemony & cultural influence in most geographies. At the moment: Threads is winning adoption momentum; X still reigns supreme in influence and depth. The fight is far from over. (See supporting data below.)
1) Engagement Metrics Users and Daily Active Users (DAU) — Growth
Threads finally revealed (and many others confirmed) it now has 400M monthly actives, quickly built on phasing it out this year. The one headline number that does matter is the rate that this adoption occurs at.
Market intelligence on mobile daily actives indicates Threads was already getting to about 115 million mobile daily users as of June 2025, with X roughly around 132 million — making Threads now neck-and-neck on phones and faster-growing but X has been down year-over-year whereas Threads is up. And the thing that most clearly represents Threads gaining traction.
Still, by most estimates X has a much larger total global monthly audience (estimates various but commonly are in the 100sM-600M MAU range publicly), so legacy scale and broader reach is still an advantage for X in many markets.
Why it matters: A growth trajectory is more important than size for a story — Journalists, creators, and advertisers go where there’s momentum. Still, until and unless MediaGazette becomes a site that everybody reads it is an inefficient way for most of us to follow news or politics.
2) Product & UX — What Each Platform Does Best
Threads
Enabled by the Instagram social graph: sign ups were already seamless for Instagram users and that immediacy drove adoption. It has singled itself out as a platform made for short text posts, awesome cross-awareness with Instagram profiles and various features which are constantly updating to suit the needs of its userbase (such as native DMs that have begun being tested recently) or emerging trends such as creation tools.
Meta’s algorithmic approach naturally skews toward this kind of engagement and discovery (like we see in the world of Instagram) — which means new creators can get distribution very fast!
X
Emphasizes chronological or hybrid feeds, live fast public conversations, and threaded replies — all ingredients of real-time news / debate.
For live reporting, activism, politics and direct public conversations X still is the fastest. As a result, it is the de-facto platform for journalists, most of the public figures and any kind of niche knowledge community.
Threads is the other side of the loop around social discovery/creator; X hyper-speed public conversation/appearance as “the Town Square”.
3) Creators & money flow
Reach pays, and creators need to chase that revenue. And as creators, unless we already have our own audiences and monetization methods – then it is a no-brainer to start on a platform that can guarantee you audience growth and an earning potential.
Threads are developing creator tooling and ad-backed monetization; Meta has the advantage of cross-platform ad infrastructure (Instagram + Facebook) and can package Threads into that ecosystem quickly. Obviously, with the recent creator hub and ad tests, Meta is making it known that scale monetization will be the way to go while providing tools for creators to grow their following (incremental revenue = incremental tax).
Even though X has been testing subscriptions, authentication locks, direct monetization more aggressively and publicly than Y, its creator economics have seemed shakier from the lens of constantly shifting policy + the added controversy layer. Meta’s ad ecosystem is a better fit with creators who wanted security and brand deals, while X still generates instant engagement and virality for pundits and real-time reporters.
What platform is meant for what creator: Threads: for discovery and native advertiser reach. You need people with different expectations about how long it takes news to go viral in real time — X.
4) Trust, Moderation and Brand Safety
Advertisers and institutions care deeply about public perception and brand safety.
In return they invested moderation transparency via account status dashboards and content controls that are more akin to the sort of familiar Meta toolbox marketers have been demanding. The lack of this across the rest of Meta’s moderation ecosystem — an imperfect system, yes, but at least a clear one for ad targeting and safety — further underscores our concerns around advertising on VR.
X has endured a series of scandals around content moderation, leadership turnover and trust. It has led to a bit of caution on the part of some advertisers and institutions, but X still has that exclusive PR value — direct access to influential voices.
Impact – Advertisers would edge towards Threads for campaign stabilization, but PR moments and direct cultural impact still lean X.
5) Use cases/Culture: How people are actually using each app
News & Politics: X is #1 for breaking news, political debate & live commentary. But reporters, and politicians and activists wanting to create some immediate impact in lieu of addressing actual problems, still rate X’s audience more highly.
Culture & Lifestyle — Threads reflects what works for Instagram: lifestyle creators, brands, and entertainers can easily convert their visual following into text conversation.
Specialized communities: Both will have niche groups, but with a longer history around that also means many of the specialized communities live at X.
TL;DR: X = squawking public plaza; Threads = hushed lobby of eclectic rendezvous
6) International Presence and Regulation Impact
Global reach matters. Threads has different regional dynamics than X.
X’s extensive, long, global history means it has the highest concentration of penetration in key markets. However, the particular high-profile controversies have attracted regional regulatory scrutiny and shaken advertiser confidence. On the other hand, Threads benefits from Meta’s massive international infrastructure and existing relationships. However, it must contend with the privacy and competition scrutiny. Furthermore, some regions, especially those where Instagram is limited or less popular, might slow down or cap Threads’ full global take-up.
The battlegrounds to determine the next 12 months are: monetization for creators; native features for keeping users in-app; advertiser confidence and brand safety; and regional regulation and local competitors.
The practical advice where participants should invest their time and ad budget are as follows: Individual creators: Grow on both. Use Threads for discovery and cross-pollinate an Instagram audience; use X for live reactions and to reach journalists or policy audiences; Brands and marketers: Test Threads if your target is visual-lifestyle consumers and you want stable ad tools; keep X for PR-driven, news-first campaigns where speed and virality matter. Publishers and journalists: Maintain a presence on X for scoops and distribution; build Threads communities to diversify audience sources and reach Instagram-native followers.
7) Three Mythbusting Points
“Threads already killed X” – False, Threads is an up and coming platform, but in terms of daily mobile shares — Threads isn’t far off. X holds strong scale and influence elsewhere.
“Switching networks is impossible.” In fact, Meta had streamlined signups for Instagram users, which increased the velocity of migration for a lot of casual users—hence why Threads accrued millions so quickly.
“Only one platform will survive.” Unlikely. For a good reason almost all social platforms succeed by specializing (think Reddit vs. Facebook vs Instagram). Expect overlap and user segmentation.
8) Status Quo: And why winning is relative
“Winning” depends on your metric. For its part, if the measure is momentum and mobile daily engagement then Threads is the rising challenger to Snapchat. X has more cultural clout, if the measure is institutional influence, breaking news and entrenched communities. Advertisers and creators will vote with their attention and budgets and both platforms are iterating fast to capture those resources.
LAST TIME: WATCH THE CREATORS AND ADVERTISERS
THE SECRETS OF SCALING AND MAINTAINING SUCCESS HISTORY SHOWS THAT CREATOR PREDICTABILITY x ADVERTISER RELIABILITY = WINNING PLATFORM
Threads is popular, gearing up for more Instagram product-led connections and ad/creator solutions coming. X has the brute power of a real-time commons and an A-list of high-profile users. In the year to come, look to creator monetization launches, ad spend flows and daily engagement shifts — those will be the key indicators.
Want to take action now? As a creator: test both and copy top-performing content fast. For Brands: experiments run a low cost test ad set (on Threads) to compare CPA (with high impact PR and RM on X)
Sources & further reading
Primary sources in this article:
TechCrunch (CORRECTED) — Threads approaching X’s DAU (data from June 2025). TechCrunch
About Threads c. 400M MAUs (Aug 2025) — TechCrunch / Fast Company / Forbes
Article via Insider — Threads testing and expansion of native DMs Business Insider
The Verge — Threads transparency dashboard and ad tests The Verge
Estimates based on industry analyses and platform stat aggregates (Backlinko/DemandSage/PhoneArena) of existing X users and platform context
