Meta announced on Wednesday that it is expanding ads on Threads to all users worldwide. The expansion will begin next week and will be gradual, with the company noting it may take months for the full rollout to complete.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has consistently praised the social app, a rival to X, which has now grown to over 400 million monthly active users. He has called it the company’s next big hit. Shortly after the app’s debut, Zuckerberg told investors that Threads had a good chance of reaching 1 billion users in a few years.
The app has grown rapidly since its July 2023 launch. It reached 200 million users by mid-2024, 320 million as of January 2025, and then added another 30 million as of last April before reaching its latest milestone.
Although Threads has not yet hit the one billion user mark, the company has been testing ads for some time. A year ago, Threads began testing ads in the U.S. and Japan. Last April, the platform opened up to global advertisers.
Meta has made it easy for existing advertisers to expand their reach to include Threads. They can automatically place ads through both Meta’s Advantage+ program and via manual campaigns. Supported ad formats include image and video ads, including the newer 4:5 aspect ratio format and carousel ads. Advertisers can manage their Threads ads alongside those for Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp in their Business Settings, simplifying cross-posting.
Additionally, Meta expanded the third-party verification already available on Facebook and Instagram to the Threads feed through Meta Business Partners. This provides advertisers with independent brand safety and suitability verification for Threads. This feature is particularly useful as Threads’ nearest rival deals with a proliferation of illegal deepfakes.
The company did not share how often users would see ads in their feed but noted that ad delivery would initially remain low as the feature scales to global users.