Meta’s X rival (formerly Twitter) is growing at a healthy pace. It now has more than 150 million monthly active users — up from 130 million in February — Mark Zuckerberg said during the company’s first quarter earning call, adding that the app “continues to be on the trajectory that I hope to see”.

The app had more than 100 million downloads in its first week, but days after saw a drop-off in engagement. Yet, in the last six months growth has been consistent and Zuckerberg has speculated the service could eventually be Meta’s next billion-user app.

More importantly, Threads could be out-pacing X. Estimates from analytics firm Apptopia indicates Threads has more daily users in the US than X. (X has claimed 550 million daily users globally.) Threads also received a recent boost when Taylor Swift joined the platform to promote her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department.

In March, Meta allowed US-based users over 18 to connect their accounts to the Fediverse so their posts would show up on other servers. Further, the company plans to release its API to a wide set of developers by June, allowing them to create experiences around the social network.

The platform is also an exception to the Meta philosophy because the company doesn’t make money from the app directly. This may change once Threads hit a certain engagement point. Zuckerberg previously said the company would “focus on monetisation” only after the app has grown sufficiently. New features continue to appear on Threads, like letting users auto-archive posts after a period of defined time.

However, Threads cannot be considered a direct competitor of X, which has a different audience profile. Instagram Head Adam Mosseri said in October that Threads won’t “amplify news on the platform”.