Meta Platforms Inc. is planning to launch a web version of its Threads microblogging platform early in the coming week, according to a Wall Street Journal report today.

Despite its limited features, Threads has regularly been referred to as a competitor to X Inc., formerly known as Twitter. Meta launched it with fanfare and a surge of user interest on July 5. Although the number of registered users on the service surged to more than 100 million less than a week after launching, most of those users did not stick around, with daily active usage down by 70% two weeks later and 85% by mid-August.

The limited features of Threads, at least compared with X, is one of the reasons people didn’t stick around. The lack of a usable web version of the service is arguably one of its biggest shortcomings, since not everyone prefers to use smartphone apps, particularly corporate users.

The Journal report notes that the lack of a web version was high on a long list of features users have wanted for Threads. The current, limited web interface does allow users to see specific Threads post through a web browser but not much else.

Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, of which Threads is a part, reportedly said on Friday on his Instagram profile that the web version of Threads would be launching soon and is already being tested internally at Meta. “It’s a little bit buggy right now, you don’t want it just yet,” Mosseri said. “As soon as it is ready, we will share it with everybody else.”

The Journal does note that people familiar with Meta’s plan said that although it is currently planned to launch the week of Aug. 21, those plans are not final and they could change.

Though it is still early days for Threads, the question arises about whether, arguably squandered the opportunity to take on X at launch with a half-baked service, features such as web access may bring users back. Sam Saliba, a Silicon Valley tech executive and previously global brand marketing lead at Instagram, believes that it’s not too late, saying that “a web-based version of Threads would be a significant advantage for Meta in its ongoing rivalry with X” and that “it would give the company a wider reach, more features and better data collection capabilities.”

The news comes as rival X continues to have no shortage of drama and issues — a prime opportunity for a decent competitor to take market share. The latest in the real-life, badly scripted soap opera, which is X under the control of Elon Musk, includes X seeing a dramatic decrease in downloads and app store ratings since Musk changed the name of the service from Twitter.

Image: Meta