Instagram For Your Thoughts: Meta May Launch Twitter Rival In June
The Meta app doesn’t have a name yet and its tagline so far is “Instagram for your thoughts”. It is being tested with celebrities and influencers being available to "select creators'' for testing purposes for months.
Instagram’s rumoured text-based app built by Meta rumoured to compete with Elon Musk’s Twitter is likely to launch next month. Meta is meeting with several influencers and celebrities to discuss the future of the app, Lia Haberman, a Substack writer who teaches about social and influencer marketing at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) said. Haberman wrote that the app doesn’t have a name yet so it is referred to as P92, Project 92, or Barcelona. Meanwhile, its tagline so far is “Instagram for your thoughts”.
However, no official name or details about the app or how it will work have been publicly confirmed by Meta or Instagram.
Based on a (somewhat blurry) example I got, Meta's new app looks a lot like Twitter.
— Lia Haberman (@liahaberman) May 19, 2023
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
The images shared in the newsletter were apparently part of a marketing slide describing how the app will work, as per a report by Business Insider. In the app, people will be able to write a post for up to 500 characters and attach links, photos, and videos that are up to (5 minutes long).
Haberman cited a conversation with a creator who met with Meta and confirmed the plans to decentralise the app and that it will be compatible with Instagram and apps like Mastodon. The app is being tested with celebrities and influencers, and has been available to "select creators'' for testing purposes for months, reported Business Insider.
Haberman further said that an Instagram account's existing username and password, and profile details like username, verification, and a user's bio will carry over. Users on other apps will be able search for, follow and interact with your profile and content. The app will operate based on Instagram's existing guidelines, and blocked accounts and words a user has chosen to hide from their feed will also carry over.
After Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover, many users were unhappy and flocked to different apps like Mastodon and Bluesky, however, none of the apps gained enough momentum or drew enough public attention to remove Twitter from the picture.
In March, Meta told the Platformer that it was “exploring a standalone decentralised social network for sharing text updates.”
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