Threads has surpassed 400 million monthly active users, but Meta clearly doesn’t plan to stop there. A recently launched new feature is trying to further leverage Instagram’s huge traffic to bring more exposure and new users to Threads. This update allows users to share posts to Instagram Stories directly within the Threads app and instantly preview how they will appear, eliminating the need to switch apps.
Now you can share Threads posts directly to Instagram Story without leaving the app
The core of this update is to make cross-platform sharing more intuitive and seamless. In the past, Threads has supported sharing posts to Instagram Stories, Feed, or Direct Messages, but users had to jump to Instagram to complete the operation. Now, all processes can be completed within Threads, lowering the threshold for sharing and making content more visible to Instagram’s large user base.
This may seem like a small adjustment, but it may bring huge growth effects. Instagram has a user base that far exceeds that of Threads. Any cross-platform exposure can bring additional traffic to Threads. Meta obviously hopes to continue to expand the influence of Threads and compete with X through this “ecosystem traffic diversion” strategy.
Since its launch in July 2023, Threads has relied on Instagram as its growth engine. When registering, users must log in with an Instagram account, and the system will automatically import the user name, avatar, profile, verification status, and number of followers, allowing the new account to be set up in seconds. In addition, users can follow all followed accounts on Instagram with just one click, and those who have not yet joined Threads will receive notifications, further promoting platform proliferation.Meta also promotes Threads through its other platforms. These strategies allow Threads content to be continuously exposed in the Meta ecosystem, forming a strong diversion effect:
- Showcase popular Threads posts on Facebook
- Add Threads post carousel to Instagram
- Provides tools to synchronize publishing to Threads from Instagram and Facebook with one click
according to Similarweb According to data, Threads has surpassed X in daily active users on mobile devices, although X still maintains an advantage on the web.
More importantly, the overall growth rate of Threads is quite amazing. These numbers show that Meta’s cross-platform strategy really works, making Threads one of the main competitors of X in a short period of time:
- August 2024: 200 million monthly active users
- August 2025: 400 million monthly active users
- October 2025: 150 million daily active users
This Story sharing update is not a gorgeous new feature, but a “friction-reducing” design. For content creators and heavy users, the simpler cross-platform sharing is, the more likely they are to use it frequently. This brings several key benefits that are likely to drive Threads’ next wave of growth:
- Increased exposure: Threads posts are more visible to hundreds of millions of users on Instagram
- Improved traffic: more people may click into Threads because they see the story
- Increased incentives for creators: smoother cross-platform sharing and increased willingness to create
- Tighter ecosystem integration: Strengthening the complementarity of Meta’s platforms
Judging from Meta’s strategy, Threads’ development direction is very clear: it does not rely on a single platform to grow, but comprehensively integrates the Meta ecosystem so that each platform becomes a source of traffic for each other. Threads is not designed to replace Instagram, but to supplement text-based social needs that Instagram cannot handle.
Source: KOCPC Chinese