Meta Tech Podcast

56: How Threads was built in 5 months

Sep 29, 2023

Learn about the rapid rise of Threads from idea to 100M users in 5 months. Engineers share challenges faced in backend, iOS, and Android development. Insights on building on top of Meta's infrastructure, code sharing, and favorite moments from the journey.

31:10

Creator website

Episode guests

Cameron

Richard

Joy

AI Summary

AI Chapters

Episode notes

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Threads grew to 100M users in 5 months by leveraging Instagram's infrastructure and reusing code efficiently for rapid development.

The Threads team showcased resilience and adaptability in addressing tech challenges post-launch while prioritizing sustainable growth and expertise diversification.

Deep dives

Threads Team's Rapid Growth and Innovative Solutions

From zero to 100 million users in just five days, the Threads team achieved remarkable growth without major downtime, showcasing their engineering expertise and agility. Leveraging their diverse backgrounds from Instagram, Novi, and reality labs, engineers Cameron, Joy, and Richard collaborated on different platforms efficiently. By adopting Jetpack Compose and Swift for Android and iOS respectively, they navigated tech challenges, even executing a rapid 30-hour upgrade.

Introduction

2min

Insights into Meta's Team Members' Diverse Roles and Projects

2min

Building a Tool for Instagram and Transitioning to Threads Project

9min

Adoption of Jetpack Compose for App UI Refactoring

4min

Adapting Instagram Backend for New App Development

3min

Building and Launching Threads App at Scale

12min

Threads went from idea to 100M users in just about five months. This would not have been possible without building on top of Meta's existing systems and infrastructure. Join Pascal as he speaks with Joy, Cameron and Richard, three engineers from the Threads team who worked on backend, iOS and Android, respectively to learn about the challenges they faced along the way.

Got feedback? Send it to us on Threads (https://threads.net/@metatechpod), Twitter (https://twitter.com/metatechpod), Instagram (https://instagram.com/metatechpod) and don’t forget to follow our host @passy (https://twitter.com/passy, https://mastodon.social/@passy, and https://threads.net/@passy_). Fancy working with us? Check out https://www.metacareers.com/.

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