Starting today, Instagram Threads will start the rollout of one of its most requested features: the ability to use the service via the web, while logged in. At launch, users will be able to post, view their feed and interact with posts from the desktop but the experience won't be in complete parity with the Threads mobile app just yet, according to the company.

For instance, web users won't be able to do things like edit their profile or send a thread over to Instagram DMs (direct messages). The latter was another recently introduced feature meant to help hook more Instagram users into trying Threads as the app's engagement trended downwards after a buzzy launch.

Over the coming weeks, we understand that Threads plans to add more features, putting the web app level with mobile.

Though full of shortcomings, the potential is huge when posting to Threads from the web. Support for posting to Threads via the web is one thing that people have been begging for since the beginning of the project, besides an inverse chronological Following feed-the latter which was delivered already in July.

Like many of Threads users' requests, the company promised web support was on the roadmap but hadn't revealed when it was expected to arrive. However, there were hints the web version was nearing completion as, just last week, Instagram head Adam Mosseri teased "We're close on web," in response to a user request for a way to post from the desktop. Then, fueling the fire even more, The Wall Street Journal on Monday reported that web support was coming this week.
The Instagram Threads team had been testing an internal version of the web version for a couple of weeks prior to the app's release, Mosseri said. But for end users, you could only view Threads on the web by visiting an individual user's profile page, such as threads.net/@techcrunch. And although you could scroll posts and replies, you didn't engage in a threaded conversation. This proved less-than-useful to those with access from the desk top, probably scaring away several Threads' eager adopters into going right back to Twitter.

All this said, however, even a web version of Threads isn't enough to make the product fully competitive with Twitter — now that it's renamed itself X — because both the Threads app and website still don't have post search capabilities. You can, today, only search for users; not what they post, nor their hashtags.

That makes the product less attractive for keeping up with news and trends, which is exactly what made Twitter a global conversation hub to begin with. The timeline of the update feed on Twitter is more than just a feed-it's a means to peek into which topics are bubbling up across the platform and what news is breaking. Without the search and trends functionality, Threads is pleasant enough to scroll through, especially with its lovely panoramic photos, but it doesn't feel like a real-time news network in the way Twitter/X still does.

That might change in time, of course: Mosseri said Threads also has post search on the road ahead. That search button has a prominent position in the desktop experience of Threads-but unfortunately, in our testing, it sent us down a blind alley: "isn't available," an error message read. Clearly, Threads is very much still a work in progress.

As it turned out, the copy of the Threads web app we gained access to before launch wasn't a fully functional client so we couldn't test much of its functionality, from browsing our feeds to searching for anything. One thing that felt weird, though, was that posting a reply to a user's thread would pop up a box that only showed the original post and a place for you to type your reply. That detracted from the sense of joining in on a bigger conversation.

We did like that you could switch between a light and dark theme from the menu on the right, though.

Threads has started well; it broke the record and became the fastest app to reach 100 million users in days after its launch with the clever way it used Instagram's social graph to onboard users. According to market intelligence firm data.ai, the app has topped 200 million installs.

Since then, user engagement has dropped drastically post-launch, with an app intelligence firm, Sensor Tower, pointing out that the daily active user count of Threads dropped 82% from launch as of July 31, putting it at just 8 million daily active users. The app had peaked at about 44 million daily users following its launch, which means there was an enormous drop-off.

Still, rumors of Threads' death are a bit too negative and happen a bit too early. The app today is indeed a beta, as crucial functions are still being created, as this web release signifies. Indeed, a commonplace jest on Threads is asking whether anyone is still here; which regularly incites a run of replies.

Eventually, Threads also hopes to connect to the fediverse of decentralized social media, such as Mastodon, which will alter the nature of its relationship to the rest of the social web. It has already started in this direction by giving users the ability to link their Threads profile to Mastodon.

What's fascinating, though, about the user base of Threads, is that they're pretty much those who have bailed — or are trying to bail — from Twitter/X. Data.ai determined that about 60% of Threads users also use Twitter/X, but just 14% of Twitter/X users also use Threads. That means Threads' chances to gain traction are presently hanging in the balance depending on whether or not Twitter/X becomes too broken (or too toxic) to retain its own users.

Given that X owner Elon Musk has just announced the end of the "block" feature on the app, another exodus from X is possible (an Xodus, perhaps?) as users can no longer feel safe posting there. Threads could benefit by that — well, at least when it adds search and trends and lists and everything else its users want.

The web version of Threads will begin rolling out to all users today. It should be fully rolled out in a few days, says the company.