Summary
- Instagram head Adam Mosseri has previously confirmed that ads will someday land on Threads.
- Code found in the Threads app suggests that the company might already be internally testing ads and sponsored content.
- Meta says that it is “not testing ads in Threads at this time,” and that it doesn’t have an “immediate timeline for monetization.”
Meta launched Threads, a sister platform to Instagram, in July last year as a direct competitor to Elon Musk-acquired X (Twitter). The platform, which got off to a flying start, gained over 100 million users in just five days. Since then, the platform’s hype has somewhat died down, with Meta more focused on user retention instead of user gain.
Behind the scenes, the platform seems to be working on new features, and many have also steadily rolled out, like letting users in more countries search for specific keywords, support for a ‘Trending Now‘ section, an archiving feature to hide posts from user profiles, a privacy feature allowing users to control who can quote their posts, and more.
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With the platform steadily reaching maturity and Meta as its overlord, there have been questions about the platform introducing advertisements. Especially as major advertisers flee X.
In addition to questions, code sleuths have also uncovered indications of upcoming ads on the platform. For reference, credible reverse engineer Alessandro Paluzzi found a way to trigger what sponsored posts would look like and shared his finding on X.
Elsewhere, as shared by TechCrunch, Chris Messina on Threads was able to spot a JSON file on the platform titled “bcn_single_image_ad,” adding that monetization and ads can’t be “that far off” with Threads introducing features like post insights.
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Even though code points at ads being tested internally, Meta has denied any immediate plans for it. “We’re not testing ads in Threads at this time, and there is no immediate timeline for monetization,” said Instagram spokesperson Alec Booker in a statement given to TechCrunch. But even if it doesn’t have an “immediate timeline,” it is certain that ads will one day land on the platform.
“We definitely plan to bring ads to Threads,” said Instagram head Adam Mosseri back in April. “I get why people have concerns, but at the end of the day we’re a business and Threads needs to make enough money to pay for the people and servers that it takes to run the service and provide it to people for free.” While not certain, we speculate that Threads might offer an X Premium-like subscription feature down the line that gets rid of ads with a few bonus features.
