In a confidential meeting with select content creators, Instagram’s parent company, Meta, has reportedly revealed its plan to launch a text chat app. The leaked screenshots of the alleged upcoming app show a user interface similar to Twitter.
Instagram’s plan was to compete with Twitter exposed Written by Leah Habermann, instructor of influencer marketing and social media marketing at the University of California, Los Angeles Extension. According to Haberman, although the text-based app is built on top of Instagram, it is decentralized and will function as a separate app. The app will also be compatible with other decentralized social media apps such as Mastodon, allowing users to reach more audiences.
The Meta is briefing creators of the upcoming text-based app – now it’s looking at a possible launch in late June.
Details are in my newsletter but I’ll include some highlights pic.twitter.com/KYqqXjrRmD
– Leah Haberman (@liahaberman) May 19, 2023
The upcoming app will maintain a central Twitter-like feed, allowing users to view content such as text, images, and videos shared by followers and recommended accounts. The word count for each text post will be limited to 500 characters.
While Twitter’s rival app will operate independently of Instagram, creator controls and account security features, such as blocked accounts and keywords, will carry over to the new app.
Sources have confirmed that Instagram is working on a Twitter competitor (a separate app) for release this summer. It may eventually be compatible with open solutions such as Mastodon. credit to @employee @employee @employee for earlier deets https://t.co/f2KNITGZy6
— Sarah Frier (@sarahfrier) May 19, 2023
Bloomberg reporter Sarah Freer reportedly confirmed the development of a Twitter-like Instagram app from Insiders. Meta first confirmed its plans to develop a standalone decentralized social network in March when it did so He said“We are exploring a standalone decentralized social network for sharing text updates. We believe there is an opportunity for a separate space where content creators and public figures can share timely updates about their interests.”
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With a vision to move more decentralized internet, TBD – a division of Jack Dorsey’s fintech firm – has announced a decentralized web platform Web5 that aims to offer “decentralized identity and data warehousing” to applications.
To facilitate this decentralized web experience, TBD’s web5 platform will introduce several key components and utilize the use of decentralized identifiers.