Meta Platforms is beginning to show off its Twitter-killer app internally—snubbing Elon Musk and his Twitter experiment in the process.
Key Details
- On Thursday, June 8, Meta reportedly showed its employees a first glance at its new app in a recent presentation.
- “Project 92,” also known as “P92” or “Threads,” is a standalone app based on the Instagram app that has the ability to integrate into other decentralized social media apps like Mastodon and ActivityPub, The Verge reports.
- Several prominent celebrities, including Oprah, DJSlime, and the Dalai Lama, have been brought on to promote the app when it.
- The app’s features include texting, linked account info with Instagram, controls for who can reply or follow you, and compatibility with other social media networks.
- Facebook’s executives called it “our response to Twitter” and promise that it will provide a safe and reliable platform, launching “as soon as we can.”
Why It’s Important
Meta has already developed a reputation for its ability to produce clones of popular apps, stealing features from popular existing apps and integrating them into its services. Threads appears to be its attempt to cash in on the declining reputation of Twitter, creating a large official platform for those who enjoy Twitter’s content without wanting to support its controversial owner Elon Musk.
Meta chief product officer Chris Cox reportedly snubbed Musk in last Thursday’s meeting, having promised that this new app will be “sanely run” and receiving cheers from employees. “We’ve been hearing from 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.”
As we previously reported, the decentralized app has been in development since January, with the company hoping it could also serve to address many of the core criticisms leveled against Facebook by providing tighter community standards and alleviating concerns of “anti-competitive acquisitions” by collaborating with Mastodon.