The unraveling of Threads, the resilience of the ‘Social Network Formerly Known as Twitter,’ and the top Twitter competitors heading into August 2023.

Welcome to the first edition of our monthly Twitter competitor roundup! Each month we’ll cover trends among the top apps that were built to compete with the ‘Social Network Formerly Known as Twitter.’ Come here for monthly updates on the top performing apps, download trends, monthly active user (MAU) insights, and more!

Here’s what we covered this month (click the links to jump to the corresponding section):

• Current Standings: Android and iOS Downloads
• Is Threads unraveling? Downloads have declined massively
• The X factor: Users appear unfazed by Twitter rebrand

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Current Standings: Android and iOS Downloads

Alright, let’s get started. Below are download counts for the top performing Twitter competitors globally. In particular, we looked at X (Twitter), Threads, Mastodon, Truth Social, Bluesky, and Gettr.

These rankings were compiled by looking at the total number of iOS and Android downloads in the period between July 3, 2023 and August 2, 2023.

Word of warning: Threads’ comically successful July 5th launch caused it to tower over the field…

Android Downloads: July 3, 2023 - August 2, 2023

So, yeah. Threads obviously dwarfed the competition this month. Meta’s new Twitter killer has already pulled in an astonishing 104,855,866 downloads on Google Play alone. Here’s the rest of the list:

• X (Twitter): 10,802,408 downloads
• Mastodon: 222,753 downloads
• Truth Social: 74,385 downloads
• Bluesky: 36,956 downloads
• Gettr: 4,681 downloads

iOS Downloads: July 3, 2023 - August 2, 2023

Unfortunately we haven’t captured data for the iOS versions of Threads and Bluesky just yet. So, while Threads almost certainly had the strongest performance, we decided to contain our analysis to the data we had.

Having said that, X (Twitter) had far and away the strongest month, with 8,662,494 total downloads. Here’s how the rest performed:

• Truth Social: 178,312 downloads
• Mastodon: 89,103 downloads
• Gettr: 10,793 downloads

Is Threads unraveling? Downloads have declined massively

Let’s talk about Threads for a moment. While the app had an immensely successful launch, the jury is still out on stickiness.

One red flag is that Android downloads have already fallen back to earth:

After peaking on July 9th with 19,981,673 downloads, the app is currently pulling in somewhere in the neighborhood of 170,000 - 200,000 daily downloads. While those are exceptionally strong numbers, they nevertheless indicate a massive decline from earlier in the month. More importantly, they’re short of where X (Twitter) is currently at:

Compounding matters further, reports are already emerging that usage is down massively. Something to keep an eye on in the months to come.

The X factor: Users appear unfazed by Twitter rebrand

The other big story from the world of social media is that Elon Musk has officially rebranded Twitter as X; and, as with anything related to Elon Musk, users on the ‘Network Formerly Known as Twitter’ had a lot to say about the change.

While most of the commentary has been negative, the airing of grievances was nevertheless mostly conducted on X. That is to say, while users were clear about their frustrations (scorn, contempt, etc.), they didn’t exactly flee the platform for greener pastures.

Here are iOS downloads since the rebrand:

As you can see, daily downloads have been trending upwards since the brand refresh. They’re now sitting fairly comfortably above 300,000.

Now for the app’s Android downloads:

While things definitely dropped on July 31st, they’ve been heading in a generally good direction. Indeed, the app even managed to surpass 400,000 downloads on both July 29th and July 30th.

Final Thoughts

The Threads launch was a massive success. What remains to be seen is whether Meta’s Twitter killer can build on it. Right now, downloads and usage appear to be waning, but adoption has been strong enough that it’s ill-advised to count it out just yet. Threads has gotten the attention it needed, but can it foster community? Time will tell.

Likewise, the jury is still out regarding the Twitter rebrand. Downloads haven’t been negatively impacted (in fact, they seem to be growing!), but it’s worth considering whether or not this refresh signals the beginning of a potentially fatal strategic turn.

Going forward, we’ll be keeping an eye on changes in this space. So, be sure to keep an eye out for future iterations of this app roundup!