At the end of May, news broke that Meta, Mark Zuckerberg’s company, is developing a microblogging app to compete with Twitter. The app would work as a standalone application, although it would also be partially integrated into the Instagram app.
This week, The Verge was able to attend an internal Meta presentation where it was possible to learn a little more about how the future app will work. According to the company, this app will be based on Instagram and will be integrated with ActivityPub, a decentralized open source protocol for social networks also used by other Twitter rivals: Bluesky and Mastodon. In this way, users of this future Twitter clone will be able to interact with users of these social networks.
Meta, which has already copied Twitter’s “paid blue checks”, makes no secret of its intentions with this new app, calling it “our answer to Twitter“. Codenamed “Project 92“, this Twitter clone would use Instagram’s account system to automatically populate users’ profile information without having to re-enter it.
“We’ve heard from creators and public figures who are interested in having a sensibly managed platform that they can trust and rely on for distribution,” said Meta product manager Chris Cox, in a clear allusion to Twitter owner Elon Musk.
Cox also stated that Meta’s goal with Project 92 (whose final name could be “Threads“) is “security, ease of use and reliability,” as well as making sure content creators have a “stable place to build and grow their audiences.”
Meta assures that it will launch the app publicly “as soon as we can” (it was rumored that it could be this summer) and that they already have several influencers to promote the app, such as DJ Slime. They are also negotiating with major media figures, such as the presenter Oprah or the Dalai Lama himself.
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