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After another tumultuous week for Twitter – which found users pressing up against rate limits and unable to read more than an allotted number of posts – people were hungry for an alternative. Enter Instagram Threads, Meta and Mark Zuckerberg’s new microblogging app that’s directly linked to your Instagram account. Zuckerberg claims the new platform surpassed 30 million signups since its debut on Wednesday night, likely due to the ease of setting up an account integrated with Instagram.

CivicScience polled Americans about Threads earlier this week ahead of its launch and found 20% of U.S. adults expressing any level of interest in the platform – and 8% claiming they were ‘very likely’ to join Threads. It’s following Bluesky and Mastodon, other Twitter competitors CivicScience has tracked – but Threads comes with the advantage of a built-in user base (and no dependence on invite codes, like Bluesky).

Gen Z shows the highest interest in Threads, with 50% of the age bracket claiming they were at least ‘somewhat likely’ to sign up. Millennial interest (ages 25-34) in Threads aligns with Gen Z at the highest level (14-15% of each age bracket claimed they were ‘very likely’ to sign up), but lags behind for all interest levels (35% at least ‘somewhat likely’ to join).

Over half of daily Twitter users claimed they were at least ‘somewhat likely’ to join Threads – with one-quarter claiming to be ‘very likely.’ Even infrequent Twitter users (monthly or less) more than double the Gen Pop’s likelihood to join Threads (42% at least ‘somewhat likely’ compared to the Gen Pop’s 20%).

It remains to be seen if any one site will overtake Twitter and become the new go-to microblogging platform, or if this instability will just create a more fragmented social media community. But CivicScience polling about Threads and other Twitter competitors makes clear that a significant percentage of Twitter users want to maintain a similar text-based social media presence – and they’re willing to explore other options.

More Consumer Insights About Adults ‘Very Likely’ To Join Instagram Threads:

  • They’re overwhelmingly the most likely to say they’re ‘very likely’ to switch banks in the next three months (36%, compared to 12% of those who are ‘somewhat likely’ to join Threads).
  • Despite its positioning as an alternative to Elon Musk’s Twitter, 65% of those ‘very likely’ to try Threads are favorable to Musk – far exceeding his favorability numbers among all other levels of intent.
  • Americans ‘very likely’ to join Instagram Threads are the most likely to express at least some level of concern for the proliferation of AI tools like ChatGPT (88%, compared to 80% of those ‘not at all likely’ to join Threads).
  • Over 6-in-10 of those ‘very likely’ to join Instagram Threads (62%) have tried the Grimace Shake from McDonald’s – the subject of a viral TikTok trend – which well outpaces all other interest levels.
  • Over half of adults ‘very likely’ to join Instagram Threads with student loan debt are ‘very concerned’ about being able to make loan payments when they resume in October.

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