Elon Musk’s social media platform X is facing a serious challenge as Android downloads continue to drop sharply, raising concerns about the company’s subscription revenue growth. According to new data from app analytics firm Appfigures, installs on Google Play fell by 44% year-over-year in July 2025, marking one of the steepest declines for the platform.
When combining iOS and Android, total downloads dropped 26% compared to the same period last year. While still a decline, this was slightly better than June’s 35% drop. Interestingly, Apple’s App Store showed a different picture, with iOS installs rising 15% year-over-year, helping balance some of the overall losses.
The Android app has long been criticized by users for being buggy and unstable. Many have complained about frequent crashes and poor performance compared to the iOS version. To address this, X’s head of product, Nikita Bier, has announced the formation of an “Android Dream Team” to rebuild the app from the ground up. Bier, known for creating viral apps like Gas and TBH, also highlighted that the iOS app recently had a record week of installs, signaling strong momentum on Apple devices.
Competitors, meanwhile, are showing mixed results. Bluesky, the decentralized social app, gained only 119,000 downloads on Google Play in July, a fraction of X’s user base. Meta’s Threads, however, continues to gain daily active users, raising concerns that it could steadily pull users away from Musk’s platform.
The decline in Android growth is also affecting X’s subscription business. In July, the platform earned $16.9 million in net revenue, only slightly up from June’s $16.8 million but still below the $18.8 million peak reached in March. While ads remain the company’s primary revenue source, the slowdown in Android adoption has slowed down premium subscription sales. Another challenge comes from Grok, X’s AI chatbot, which now has a standalone app. Many users who previously subscribed to X Premium for AI access are shifting to Grok directly.
With Android being the largest smartphone ecosystem worldwide, X’s future growth may depend on how quickly it can fix its app issues. If the problems persist, the platform risks losing more paying users and falling further behind its rivals.
