Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) seems to be having a rough time on Android, and the numbers don’t lie. According to new stats from app analytics firm Appfigures, the app’s downloads on Google Play took a nosedive in July 2025, falling by a massive 44% year-over-year. Meanwhile, over on the Apple side of things, X is still pulling some weight, with iOS installs climbing 15% in the same period. But when you look at the bigger picture, the decline on Android is dragging down the overall numbers, leaving total mobile installs 26% lower than last year.
To put it in perspective, this is still an improvement from June, when overall downloads were down a staggering 35%, mostly thanks to Android’s weak performance. And if you’ve ever used the X Android app, you probably know why — it has a reputation for being buggy, slow, and prone to crashing. Not exactly the smooth social media experience users expect in 2025.
Enter Nikita Bier, X’s new head of product and a guy who built his name creating viral teen apps like Gas and TBH. He’s already hinted that X is forming an “Android Dream Team” to rebuild the app from the ground up. On the bright side, X’s iOS app just had a record-breaking week in terms of installs, which the company is happily showing off — perhaps to distract from its Android troubles.
But here’s the twist: while X struggles, competition isn’t as fierce as you’d think. Bluesky, often dubbed an X alternative, only managed around 119,000 downloads on Google Play in July — peanuts compared to X’s millions. However, Meta’s Threads is quietly catching up in daily active users, especially on mobile, and could be siphoning away some Android users.
Revenue-wise, X earned $16.9 million from subscriptions in July — slightly better than June but still down from March’s $18.8 million. And with Musk’s AI product Grok now offering its own app, many premium X users may be ditching subscriptions that were mainly about AI perks anyway.
The big picture? X is still a giant, but its Android problem is a ticking time bomb. Fixing that app could determine whether it holds onto dominance or keeps bleeding users to competitors.
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