Threads to Implement Rate Limits to Combat Spam Amid Drop in Active Users, DMs Feature Coming Soon: Reports

Threads — the popular microblogging platform launched by Facebook parent Meta earlier this month — will implement rate limits following an increase in spam attacks on the platform. Rate limits are an artificial ceiling on the number of times a user can interact with a platform within a certain period, and rival Twitter announced similar limits for the same purpose earlier this month. Meanwhile, the early excitement around the Threads app appears to have waned, as per a report that states that the number of daily active users on the app has dropped considerably as the app still lacks important features offered by other platforms.

In a Threads post on Monday, Instagram head Adam Mosseri said that spam attacks had "picked up" on the platform and that the service would have to "get tighter on things like rate limits. However, just like Twitter's recent implementation of rate limits, the decision could prevent active people from accessing the service. However, Mosseri added that users could provide feedback related to false positives, if the company's protections ended up limiting their activity.

After a blockbuster debut, it appears that Threads is seeing a drop in daily active users. From 49 million daily active users on July 7, the app had 23.6 million active users (on Android) a week later on July 14, according to details shared by SimilarWeb and corroborated by analytics platform Sensor Tower. In addition to the novelty of new apps wearing off, Meta's decision to block access to users from the EU using a VPN could have also cause a higher drop in active users.

Despite the reported drop in active users on Threads, the platform has already gained around one-fifth the weekly active userbase that rival Twitter has, according to details shared by Data.ai. The firm also revealed that demand for Threads was highest in India, which accounted for 33 percent of the global downloads for the app, followed by Brazil and the US.

Unlike other social media and microblogging services, Threads lacks a few important features that were missing when the service was launched earlier this month. These include direct messaging (DMs), the ability to search for text in posts, and a chronological timeline. While these features are still in development, a leaked memo seen by Business Insider reveals that messaging, improved search functionality, and the ability to see trends and topics will soon be making their way to the platform.