# This is Instagram’s new Twitter competitor

Source: https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/19/23730070/instagram-twitter-app-competitor-leak
Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/This-is-Instagrams-new-Twitter-competitor?index=0x6467e2f8b6e22cdd5e531ee08604455384ee379f487d69f9e64e7cedb81446b8dcb43e1a
Submitted by tim on 2023-05-19 UTC, 2 upvotes, 0 comments

## Summary

Instagram is reportedly building a text-based app for conversations that would compete with Twitter, according to a leaked marketing slide that Lia Haberman shared in her ICYMI Substack newsletter. The app is reportedly codenamed P92 or Barcelona, and users could sign in with their Instagram credentials, with followers, handle, bio, and verification carrying over. Text posts of up to 500 characters with attached links, photos, and videos would be supported, and the slide says the app will be compatible with apps like Mastodon, letting their users follow and interact with public profiles. Meta declined to comment, but in March it told Platformer it was exploring a standalone decentralized social network for text updates.

## Article

We finally have an idea of what Instagram’s rumored text-based Twitter competitor might look and feel like, as reported by Lia Haberman, who shared in her ICYMI Substack newsletter what appears to be a leaked marketing slide and details about the app.

The slide doesn’t give the app a separate name — instead, it just calls it “Instagram’s new text-based app for conversations” — but the app is apparently codenamed P92 or, alternately, Barcelona, according to Haberman. Users will be able to sign in with their Instagram username and password, and your followers, handle, bio, and verification will transfer over from the main app.

In the app, you’ll see a feed, and you can make text posts up to 500 characters long with attached links, photos, and videos.

The app looks pretty much like if you mixed Instagram and Twitter together, based on two screenshots included in the leaked marketing slide. And Meta will apparently have some good moderation controls from the start, “equipping you with settings to control who can reply to you and mention your account,” the slide says. Any accounts you’ve blocked on Instagram will apparently carry over.

Perhaps most significantly, though, the new Instagram text app will have an element of decentralization as well. “Soon, our app will be compatible with certain other apps like Mastodon,” Instagram’s slide says. “Users on these other apps will be able to search for, follow and interact with your profile and content if you’re public, or if you’re private and approve them as followers.” (Presumably that compatibility will come through ActivityPub, which Meta has been exploring alongside other tech companies.)

If the app is released widely, it could make Instagram an even more popular destination than it already is. With the continued worsening of Twitter, many people are looking for their next place to share tweet-like updates. While platforms like Mastodon and Bluesky have gained some traction, a text-based Instagram app would offer a way for people who have already built followings on the platform to just keep posting there without having to scrounge for followers in yet another place.

Meta declined to comment. In March, it provided the following statement about its efforts to Platformer: “We’re exploring a standalone decentralized social network for sharing text updates. We believe there’s an opportunity for a separate space where creators and public figures can share timely updates about their interests.”

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Jay Peters