New data from digital market intelligence firm Similarweb indicates that Meta’s Threads has pulled ahead of Elon Musk’s X in daily mobile usage, signaling a notable shift in how people are using major social platforms on smartphones. While X continues to attract a much larger audience on the web, Threads is increasingly becoming the more frequently opened app on iOS and Android.
According to Similarweb’s estimates, Threads reached 141.5 million daily active users on mobile as of January 7, 2026, continuing an upward trend that has been building for months. Over the same period, X recorded about 125 million daily active users on mobile. In other words, on phones—where many users do most of their social scrolling—Threads is now seeing more day-to-day activity than X.
Importantly, this jump doesn’t appear to be a sudden spike tied only to the latest controversies surrounding X. Recently, the platform has faced intense backlash after people used its built-in AI tool, Grok, to generate non-consensual nude images of women, in some cases reportedly involving minors. The growing alarm around AI-generated deepfakes has triggered increased scrutiny, including an investigation opened by California’s attorney general, alongside attention from multiple regions worldwide.
At the same time, other social apps have benefited from the turbulence, with Bluesky reportedly seeing a rise in installs. But Similarweb’s broader trends suggest Threads’ momentum is less about a short-term reaction and more about steady adoption driven by Meta’s strategy and product updates.
Threads has several advantages that may be fueling its mobile growth. Meta has been able to promote Threads heavily across Facebook and Instagram, regularly putting the app in front of a massive existing user base. Threads has also leaned hard into creator-friendly features and rapid improvements, giving users more reasons to return daily.
Over the past year, the platform has expanded well beyond a basic text-posting experience by rolling out interest-based communities, improved content filters, direct messages, long-form text support, and disappearing posts. It has also been spotted experimenting with games, hinting at additional engagement tools designed to keep people spending more time inside the app.
Those changes appear to be shaping behavior: it’s not just that people have tried Threads, but that more users are turning it into a daily habit—especially on mobile.
Meta’s own figures support the idea that Threads has reached meaningful scale. The company said in August 2025 that Threads had surpassed 400 million monthly active users. A later update, reported in October 2025, placed Threads at 150 million daily active users, underscoring that its user base is both large and increasingly active.
The longer-term trajectory also matters. Similarweb previously noted that Threads was rapidly closing the distance with X on mobile, including a reported 127.8% year-over-year growth rate as of late June 2025. That pattern has continued into 2026.
In the United States, Similarweb says X still leads Threads in daily active users, but the gap has narrowed substantially. Compared with a year ago, X now has roughly half the U.S. daily active users it once did, suggesting a meaningful shift in domestic engagement even if X remains a major player.
Where X continues to hold a commanding advantage is on the web. Threads is still largely a mobile-first service with limited traction in desktop browsing, while X maintains a steady web audience. Similarweb reports that X receives around 150 million daily web visits, and as of January 13, X was seeing 145.4 million daily web visits. Threads, by comparison, drew 8.5 million daily web visits across its domains combined.
Taken together, the numbers point to a clear pattern: Threads is increasingly winning the mobile daily-usage battle, while X remains far stronger on the web. If Threads continues shipping new features at its current pace—and keeps leveraging Meta’s enormous ecosystem to funnel users toward the app—the competition for everyday attention on smartphones may tilt even further in Threads’ direction.
