Facebook is reportedly developing a new messaging app aimed at promoting constant sharing between “close friends.”
A companion to Instagram, Threads invites users to share text, photo, and video messages with friends—as well as slightly more bizarre details like location, phone speed, and battery life.
The app, according to The Verge, is currently being tested internally at Facebook.
This comes just three months after Instagram ceased work on its standalone direct messaging app, introduced in December 2017 with little enthusiasm from platform mainstays.
In May, executives claimed beta testers were frustrated by having to switch between two applications to compose and read messages, The Verge reported.
The social network, however, remained keen on building unique ways for people to communicate. Enter Threads.
A blatant Snapchat replica, the app—based on screenshots seen by The Verge—is designed to encourage automatic sharing between users and their “close friends” (as dictated by a new Instagram feature).
The inner-circle function, currently limited to Stories, lets users share posts only with a curated list of people; a green ring (instead of the standard pink-purple gradient) suggests a “close friend” has shared something privately with you.
That concept, it seems, is being applied to Threads, where folks can opt in for regular status updates, or choose to manually brief buddies on their own time.
Messages from mates appear in a central feed, with a green dot indicating who is currently active, The Verge explained. Recent stories can be viewed from inside Threads, as well; the app also comes with a camera for capturing photos and videos.
It remains unclear, though, when (or even if) Threads might launch.
But if Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s March comments on private-messaging-as-the-future-of-the-firm are anything to go by, you can expect a new texting service sooner rather than later.
Facebook declined to comment on the reports; Instagram did not immediately responded to Geek’s request.
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