Instagram Is Putting Twitter In Its Crosshairs With The New “Project 92” App

Instagram Is Putting Twitter In Its Crosshairs With The New “Project 92” App

Well, it looks like word on the street that Meta is working on a direct Twitter rival turned out to be real. The Verge was amongst the personnel present in Meta’s company-wide meeting in which chief product officer Chris Cox reveals the app dubbed as “our response to Twitter”, or officially codenamed as: Project 92.

The app, which is pretty much an offshoot of Instagram will use a decentralized social media protocol called ActivityPub. The protocol is also supported by other social media platforms and companies, such as Tumblr, Medium, Flipboard, Mozilla and Mastodon – the lattermost of which should help combine the powers of “in-exile” Twitter users to give Meta better chances at taking on Twitter head-on.

Codenamed “Project 92”, this app uses existing account system from Instagram so users won’t have to start from scratch – they can get things kicked off right away as soon as they choose to join the new platform that was also labeled as “Instagram for your thoughts”. However, based on findings made by The Verge, it looks like the official name for the app could be called “Threads”.

“We’ve been hearing from creators and public figures who are interested in having a platform that is sanely run, that they believe that they can trust and rely upon for distribution,” said Cox. Obviously, a dig at Elon’s rather brazen tactics of revamping Twitter since his takeover in October 2022. The goal is straightforward – “safety, ease of use, reliability” and stability for creators to “grow their audiences”.

Cox also mentions Meta has secured top celebrities to use the app from launch, including DJ Slime, and others like Oprah and Dalai Lama are still in discussion stage. The whole project started off in January this year and the company is trying to roll out the app as soon as possible, in hopes to grab as many users and organizations from Twitter contemplating from leaving the platform. Previous reports has pointed at a possible late-June launch – or at least a public testing of some capacity.

Pokdepinion: This will be an interesting development. With the users readily available, this might entice advertisers to spend more on Meta platforms and even drop Twitter (or rather X Corp) altogether especially after a few unpopular policies with the platform.