Facebook already owns Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp; and now it has a new messaging app in the pipeline called Threads – What is the Social Media Giant upto?
Facebook is coming up with a new messaging app for Instagram, “Threads”. As per the Social Media giant, Threads app is designed for users to foster constant, intimate connections with their close friends. Threads app is specially designed as a companion app to Instagram, this means the app will (help you) share your location, speed and battery life with their close friend’s list on Instagram.
Threads app will be the latest messaging app added to the Facebook portfolio. Facebook already owns Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp which cater to billions of users around the world. The umbrella of apps has a unique cross-platform sharing convenience that attracts users. The app’s initial testing has already been started.
This may be an attempt by Facebook’s new app Threads to compete with Snapchat.
Snapchat already has a massive userbase. According to the reports the average Snapchat user spends more time in the app than the average Instagram user does.
Facebook’s inclination towards the messaging space
Now, there will be a separate messaging app to Instagram just like the Messenger app which is used for Facebook. Facebook says it is interested in building ‘new messaging experiences’, for its billions of users around the world. It keeps on vying to make such products.
Instagram in May ceased work on Direct, a standalone messaging app that it had been developing since late 2017.
The beta version was tested in Chile, Israel, Italy, Portugal, Turkey, and Uruguay but was canceled before a worldwide release occurred. The executive on the beta version said that it frustrated them to switch between Instagram and a second app whenever they wanted to send a message.
Instagram’s Threads is a Threat?
Instagram employees who work on messaging app were moved to the Facebook Messenger team earlier this year as part of a broader consolidation between the parent company and its prized acquisition. Screenshots of Threads app reveals how the app would work.
The app includes an opt-in “automatic sharing” feature that allows those on the list to get regular updates as to where that person is. Messages from your friends appear in a central feed, with a green dot indicating which of your friends are currently active.
Facebook had also announced plans to merge the services of WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram, allowing users to send messages to one another without switching apps. The apps will remain separate, it will just bring that under a single messaging platform.
Thread’s role in Facebook’s future
Facebook has made major changes are in the work after facing years of sustained and growing criticism from promoting political propaganda and hoaxes to massive data breaches and literal genocide. A number of voices on the internet stat that Instagram’s Threads is a Threat.
It is unclear that Thread app will play in the future of Facebook. The app looks similar to the existing messaging app, Instagram direct. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said earlier this year that he believed private messaging was critical to the technology giant’s future.
The future Zuckerberg hopes to bring about
“I believe the future of communication will increasingly shift to private, encrypted services where people can be confident what they say to each other stays secure and their messages and content won’t stick around forever,” said Zuckerberg.
“This is the future I hope we will help bring about,” Zuckerberg added.
There is no official announcement when Threads might launch. Facebook might end development before shipping the app to the general public, as it did with Direct.c
