Maine’s Senate Race Implodes, Meta’s Threads Rivals Musk’s X, and the Trump Phone Arrives

In this episode of Uncanny Valley, our hosts discuss Threads as it recently hit 500 million monthly users, putting it on par with X—but is it really competing, or just filling a different niche? Meanwhile, the reviews have been coming in for the Trump-branded T1 phone in recent weeks as it finally started shipping after a year of delays. Plus: We explain the fast-moving crisis around Senate candidate Graham Platner, who is stepping down after a long string of controversies.

Articles mentioned in this episode:

You can follow Zoë Schiffer on Bluesky at @zoeschiffer and Leah Feiger on Bluesky at @leahfeiger. Write to us at [email protected].

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Transcript

Note: This is an automated transcript, which may contain errors.

Leah Feiger: Hey buddy.

Zoë Schiffer: Leah, hello.

Leah Feiger: How’s it going?

Zoë Schiffer: It’s great. Brian is gone. When the cat is away, the mice will not be talking about any tech conferences.

Leah Feiger: We’re talking about a gadget, but it’s—

Zoë Schiffer: It’s one we care about.

Leah Feiger: It’s one we care about. It’s a gadget we care about.

Zoë Schiffer: Welcome to WIRED’s Uncanny Valley. I’m Zoë Schiffer, director of business and industry.

Leah Feiger: And I’m Leah Feiger, director of politics and science.

Zoë Schiffer: Today on the show, we’re discussing how Threads, Meta’s competitor to X, has been silently growing and actually catching up to its rival. Last month, Threads reached 500 million monthly users, making it as popular as Elon Musk’s social platform. Truly caught me by surprise. We’ll discuss what this milestone means in a landscape that’s increasingly obsessed with AI products.

Leah Feiger: We’ll also be diving into the Trump phone. The one that was announced a year ago, delayed quite a few times, and now apparently the place orders have finally been arriving over the past few weeks. The phone’s features are exactly what you would expect. Then, we’ll be turning our attention to the political debacle happening in Maine. Democratic nominee Graham Platner is facing allegations of sexual abuse and numerous calls to step down.

Zoë Schiffer: OK, Leah, let’s dive in to Meta’s Threads first. If you have an Instagram account, you’ve definitely seen it. The app is constantly being promoted in the main feed. And just to catch people up who aren’t aware, it looks a lot like X, like Twitter. And that is the point. Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2022, turned it into X, and Meta basically saw a wide open field because people were so upset with how Elon Musk was running that platform. And so, they created Threads as a direct competitor. When it first launched, it got a ton of press. I was part of that press. I was heralding it, embarrassingly as the new, next, better Twitter. But then it just had this kind of overly moderated LinkedIn feel, at least to me, and it seemed like many others. And so, it feels like it’s dropped off the map a little bit. But then Meta announces, wait, no, 500 million monthly users putting it on par with X.