Threads hits 500 million monthly users in under three years by tapping Instagram’s built-in audience

Meta’s Threads has reached 500 million monthly active users in just under three years, using a one-tap transfer of Instagram identities to avoid the typical cost of building an audience from scratch. The piece argues the bigger advantage is Meta’s cross-app distribution pipeline rather than any single standalone app. It says the same playbook is being applied to Meta AI, which reached 1 billion monthly users by May 2025, and to Ray-Ban Meta glasses, with 2025 sales cited at 7 million pairs. The milestone is presented as reinforcing investor confidence in Meta’s capital allocation and ability to scale new products.