Alex Heath

Meta’s X.com competitor now has 275 million monthly users, up from 200 million in August, according to Mark Zuckerberg. On Meta’s Q3 earnings call just now, he says Threads is seeing more than one million sign-ups per day and is on track to becoming “our next major social app.”

The time people spend in Threads “also continues to grow,” and Meta is working to “make it easier to stay up to date on topics,” adds CFO Susan Li.

I reported last week that Google is aiming to release its next big Gemini AI model in December. On the company’s earnings call today, CEO Sundar Pichai confirmed that it’s coming:

We’ve had two generations of Gemini model. We are working on the third generation, which is progressing well.

Relatedly, The Information reported after my scoop that Google is working to bring agent-like behavior to the next Gemini. The idea is that the model can take over a computer screen in a way that would work similarly to what Anthropic recently released.

An interesting look at how Snap has diverted from other platforms in its handling of former President Trump:

Unlike other major tech platforms, Snap has not lifted the ban on Mr. Trump’s personal account, which has drawn angry pushback from his campaign. Despite not allowing Mr. Trump to post personally, the company has said it would sell his campaign political advertisements, which must all go through an internal fact-check.

We’re in the developer-focused section of Meta’s Connect keynote. CTO Andrew Bosworth is onstage and starts with an apology: “We have not made it easy to develop for our platforms. I want you to know that we know that, and we’re sorry.”

He goes on to say that the “ground has constantly been shifting under your feet for years now.” Meta just recently killed Spark, its AR effects platform, without warning and has made more changes than I can count to the Quest’s software.