Elon Musk’s X is struggling on Android devices in terms of new installs, even while App Store downloads grow, according to new data from app intelligence provider Appfigures. In July 2025, X downloads on Google Play saw a significant decline, as new installs dropped by 44% year-over-year worldwide, even as iOS downloads grew by 15%.
This steep drop in installs is pulling down X’s overall average, leading to a 26% decrease in total mobile downloads year-over-year as of July. That’s still slightly better than the month prior, when total downloads had fallen by 35%, thanks to another sharp drop in Android downloads, which were then down by nearly half (49%) year-over-year.
The firm didn’t speculate on what’s causing the decline on Android devices beyond suggesting that the X app on Android is known to be a sore spot for the company. Recently hired X head of product Nikita Bier, known for growth hacking teen social apps like Gas and TBH (then selling them), has hinted that X is looking to address issues on Android, where its app is notoriously buggy and often crashes.
In a post on the platform, Bier announced that X was hiring for its “Android Dream Team” to work on rebuilding the X Android app. He also recently posted that X’s iOS app had just seen a record week in terms of installs, perhaps hoping to draw attention away from the large Android slump.
It’s not clear where would-be X Android users are going. Rival Bluesky has seen slowing growth in recent months, and its Google Play app pulled in just 119,000 downloads in July. That’s nowhere near the millions that install X on iOS or Android every month. However, Meta’s Threads daily active users have been catching up to X on mobile devices, so, possibly, some Android users could be accounted for there.
In addition to the drop in Google Play installs, X is struggling to grow its subscription revenue, Appfigures found.
In July, X earned $16.9 million in net revenue, down from the $18.8 million it earned in March 2025. However, that was a slight tick up from the $16.8 million it generated in June. (Of course, X still earns the majority of its overall revenue from ads, not in-app premium subscriptions.)
While the declining demand for X on Android is partially to blame for revenue declines, X is also likely losing paying customers to Grok. The latter now has its own stand-alone app that attracts those who were buying X subscriptions primarily for the AI perks.
