As KakaoTalk, the "national messenger," recently introduced social media (SNS) elements and drew pushback from users, major overseas platforms are strengthening their messenger features. With Instagram, Threads, X (formerly Twitter), and TikTok fully expanding their messaging functions, the trend of private conversations with acquaintances moving out of messenger apps and being absorbed into SNS is accelerating.
According to the industry on the 16th, Threads, the text-based SNS operated by Meta, introduced direct messages (DMs) in July this year and, starting this month, is rolling out a group DM feature for up to 50 participants worldwide in phases. Emily Dalton Smith, Meta's vice president of product, said, "The goal is to help people connect more deeply around topics they are already talking about, such as a soccer match or a drama," adding, "We are expanding not as a simple messenger but as a real-time conversation-focused SNS."
Threads is a text-based SNS launched in July 2023 as a rival to X. It recently surpassed 400 million monthly active users (MAU), growing into Meta's next-generation core app. Initially a feed-style service centered on short posts and images, it has been evolving into an "SNS and conversation app" by fully integrating messaging features this year. With this update, Threads users can invite up to 50 followers into a single chat room, and a link invitation feature will be added later. In addition to text, various media files such as photos, videos, and GIFs can be sent, and message request blocking and spam filtering features are also provided.
Threads' rapid growth is clear in Korea as well. According to the app statistics analysis platform Mobile Index, Threads' domestic MAU (monthly active users) jumped 5.7 times in just over two years, from about 970,000 at the start of the service in 2023 to 5.58 million as of the last month. This shows that "conversations within global SNS" have already become routine, especially among Generation Z.
Meta is also strengthening Instagram's role as a messenger alongside Threads. As the DM feature, along with the short-form "Reels," has become a key driver of user time spent, Instagram is reorganizing its app UX (user experience) structure to be "conversation-centric." Since last year, it has improved access to the messages tab and notification features, and added friends-only Stories and co-managed feed features, intensifying competition with existing domestic and overseas messenger apps such as KakaoTalk and WhatsApp. As of the last month, Instagram's domestic MAU stands at nearly 24.41 million.
X is also strengthening its messaging features. In June, X introduced its own encrypted chat service, "XChat." The service applies end-to-end encryption (E2EE) to enable users to have private conversations more securely. The video platform TikTok is also expanding user conversations by integrating video comments, story sharing, and DMs between friends. By reinforcing interactions within the recommendation feed, it aims to drive not only content consumption but also real-time conversations and community building.
In contrast, the push to turn KakaoTalk into an SNS in Korea has produced the opposite result. Kakao revamped the KakaoTalk Friends tab into a feed similar to Instagram and added a short-form tab in September, but user reactions were mostly critical, calling it a "hybrid of TikTok and Instagram." Analysts say resistance grew as the messenger's inherent "simplicity" and "separation of privacy" functions were encroached upon by SNS elements. This contrasts with global SNS platforms, whose strengthening of messaging features is perceived as adding the extra value of "intimate private communication" to existing public channels, drawing no user backlash.
An IT industry official said, "Global SNS such as Instagram have already become everyday communication channels for users in their teens and 20s," adding, "If the trend of maintaining relationships and continuing conversations within existing SNS spreads, KakaoTalk's dominant position in the messenger market will inevitably be shaken."