Threads From Instagram Downloaded 374,000 Times in Its First Month

Instagram’s Threads, the social media giant’s new standalone app for Instagram direct messaging, was installed by approximately 374,000 users globally across the App Store and Google Play during its first month, Sensor Tower Store Intelligence estimates show.

In the 30 days following its release on October 3, Facebook-owned Threads proved most popular in the United States, which represented 43 percent of all downloads or close to 161,000 installs, followed by India with 10 percent or approximately 37,400 installs. While the U.S. initially led the way in growth, Ukraine had assumed the lead on day 30, accounting for 28 percent of downloads to the United States’ 21 percent on that day.

App Store users comprised 59 percent of all downloads during the app’s first month, with the remaining 41 percent coming from Google Play.

In terms of total install numbers, Threads is faring better than Instagram’s previous attempt at a standalone messaging app, the now-defunct Direct, which saw 124,000 downloads in its first month. However, Direct was only released in a handful of countries. When looking at Threads’ stats for the four countries where both apps were available during their first months (Italy, Israel, Portugal, and Uruguay), Threads’ total shrinks to 15,500, or 13 percent of the downloads that Direct saw.

Threads’ story thus far echoes that of Messenger. Facebook faced slow growth and resistance from its users when it first spun its direct messaging feature out into its own app. While Messenger now enjoys an average of 66 million new mobile downloads monthly, it took nearly three years—and the removal of messaging from the Facebook app entirely in August 2014—to convince users to make the switch. Facebook has proved that standalone messaging apps can work with time, so Threads may yet find its footing.