Here's A Look At Instagram's Upcoming Twitter Competitor
Meta has been working on a Twitter alternative of its own for a while, and as the planned launch inches closer, we are seeing more leaks documenting how it looks and works. Slides shown to employees at an internal meeting, which were obtained by The Verge, offer a glimpse at the UI of Instagram's take on Twitter. The app, which is a text-focused derivative of Instagram, appears to have a blue tick account verification system of its own. Beneath each post, there are like, comment, repost, and share buttons, which aren't too different from the view we get on Instagram, Twitter, and upstarts like Mastodon and Bluesky.
Just the way Twitter distinguishes replies to an original post with a thread-like approach, Instagram's spin-off has that, too. Currently being developed under the codename "Project 92," Meta is hawking the platform to "creators and public figures who are interested in having a platform that is sanely run, that they believe that they can trust and rely upon for distribution," according to The Verge's leak. Coding work on a Twitter alternative reportedly began in January, but Meta reportedly wants to release it to the public as soon as it can. However, this won't be the first time that we're hearing about the app, which could end up being called Threads.
Instagram has its work cut out
In an edition of her ICYMI newsletter, Lia Haberman also shared purported in-development slides of the app that is supposedly targeting a launch in June. The company reportedly plans to market it as "Instagram for your thoughts" and is currently building it atop a decentralized platform called ActivityPub. Of course, your Instagram account will be used for logging in, and all of your details (password, bio, and online visibility) will be seamlessly carried over to the new app — assuming the leaks are accurate. But, thanks to its decentralized architecture, users will be able to carry their account elsewhere, including to Mastodon.
Based on a (somewhat blurry) example I got, Meta's new app looks a lot like Twitter.
So, could this take over all the Twitter screenshots we've been seeing on the Feed lately? Maybe.
It’s impossible to predict how audiences will respond but this could be an alternative. pic.twitter.com/xgQa1kUjCl
— Lia Haberman (@liahaberman) May 19, 2023
The app will reportedly allow users to post text updates as lengthy as 500 characters, photos, and videos (up to five minutes in duration), and carry over their blocked preferences (both accounts and words) from Instagram. Meta is yet to officially say anything about the app's development and its release could very well be pushed further out. But compared to newbie alternatives like Mastodon or Bluesky, the upcoming Threads app — or whatever it ends up being called — has far higher chances of success. A seamless account creation and data transfer process from Instagram, which already has hundreds of millions of users across the globe, will be a key factor here. However, Meta's bad reputation with data privacy and tendency to abandon experimental products could prove to be a deterrent for early adopters.