Threads, the popular Instagram alternative to X (formerly Twitter), went offline Thursday afternoon around 1:30 p.m. ET, but quickly regained its footing shortly after 2 p.m.
People who tried to access the platform from the desktop or the Threads app encountered blank screens and empty feeds. There was no indication that Instagram, with which Threads is closely integrated, suffered similar difficulties.
Downdetector.com, which tracks consumer complaints about online service outages, noticed a sharp spike in complaints starting around 1:30 p.m.
The threads launched last year and quickly skyrocketed to prominence and popularity. Since July, it has been slowly adding features that put it almost on equal footing with its rival X, which has been bleeding advertisers, and possibly users, since Elon Musk took over in late 2022.
We took a look at X, where “Threads Down” was never trending, but some X users reported that they couldn't access Threads either.
This was the first significant outage for the social media platform since its launch. Perhaps it coincided with Threads testing some big new features, like the ability to save draft posts or add GIFs via the desktop.
TechRadar asked Instagram CEO and Threads overlord Adam Mosseri what happened and will update this post with his response.
Posted by @lanceulanoff
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