Threads Real-Time News Update Suffers Set Back

Despite aiming to be a competitor to Elon Musk's X (formerly Twitter), Instagram's Threads app struggled to keep pace with real-time discussions during Friday's East Coast earthquake.

While X's trending topics prominently displayed "#earthquake" followed by affected areas, Threads took until nearly 7 PM WAT to show earthquake-related terms, even though the tremor hit before 3 PM WAT.

Threads users did discuss the quake, creating posts tagged with "EarthquakeThreads" or "NYC Threads," but the app's lack of hashtags hindered discoverability. Unlike X, Threads encourages "[term] Threads" tagging, which fragmented discussions around the earthquake.

Instagram attributed the slow trending to the quake's regional nature, claiming national conversations drive trends. 

Eventually, the earthquake did become a top trend on Threads, but the delay raises concerns about the app's ability to compete with X.

X potential became clear during the San Francisco earthquake, where users shared immediate updates. This experience fueled early growth for the platform.

While Threads boasts 130 million monthly users, the largest in the "fediverse" network, X remains resilient. Despite a decline in overall use, X's power user base remains strong.