Social media start-up Bluesky is exploding as academics, journalists, and left-leaning politicians abandon Elon Musk ’s X in search of bluer skies. Now, the platform has surpassed Meta ’s Threads in user numbers, yet Threads still leads in app usage.

Meta-owned Threads started November with 5 times the daily app users of Bluesky. That number is now down to just 1.5.

Threads is now prioritizing accounts you follow over accounts you don't in the default For you feed. It's a good change, but the timing seems suspicious, considering Bluesky's current popularity.

On Thursday, Mosseri announced a major change to Threads' algorithm to compete with the likes of Bluesky. The social media platform is "rebalancing ranking to prioritize content from people you follow, which will mean less recommended content from accounts you don't follow and more posts from the accounts you do starting today."