Meta has announced a strategic evolution for its text-focused app, Threads, with longtime company executive Connor Hayes now in charge. Previously managed under Instagram’s head, Adam Mosseri, Hayes will shift into a dedicated leadership role by mid‑September and continue reporting directly to Mosseri.
This move reflects Threads’ transition from an Instagram offshoot into a standalone social platform with its own identity and user base. Since its 2023 debut, Threads has steadily grown, surpassing 350 million monthly active users by April 2025 and marking a gain of 30 million over the previous quarter. With younger users increasingly embracing Threads, Meta’s strategy now is to amplify its growth trajectory while refining the app’s core offerings.
In announcing Hayes’s promotion, Mosseri described Threads as “a real platform” that requires its own focused leadership . Hayes brings a wealth of experience, having previously led Instagram Reels and contributed to Meta’s generative AI efforts – skills likely to aid Threads in scaling new formats and features. The appointment comes at a pivotal growth phase: Threads has drawn comparisons to X, especially in daily user mobile engagement.
By elevating Hayes, Meta signals its intent to accelerate Threads independently, presumably with a more Threads-focused development cycle in the future rather than being an offshoot of Meta’s other projects. What this means for the platform isn’t clear yet, but Threads will likely receive updates and new features that target the platform’s intended goals more closely.
