Threads Messaging App Is The Latest Assault Of Instagram On Snapchat

Threads – a messaging app is being developed by Facebook. It is designed to promote intimate, constant sharing between its users and the closest friends of them. This new messaging platform is created as Instagram’s companion app. It lets users share automatically their battery life, speed, and location with their friends, alongside more typical video messages, text, and photos using the creative tools of Instagram. Threads are now going through an internal test at Facebook.

However, Instagram refused to comment.

Direct – a standalone app for messaging, which had been active since the end of 2017, was stopped by Instagram in May. At that time, executives said beta testers felt annoyed about switching from Instagram to another second app and vice versa whenever they needed to deliver a message. However, executives also said that Instagram was still interested in creating new experiences in messaging. Earlier this year, employees working on messaging in the company were moved to the team of Facebook Messenger. This movement belongs to a broader consolidation of Facebook and the parent company’s prized acquisition.

A new messaging application which is built around users’ close friends might gain more popularity, which was what Snapchat has done. As indicated by reports, the average user of Snapchat spends more time inside the app than the average user of Instagram does. For the photo-sharing platform and its parent company, which have been jealous of the strong engagement amongst younger users of Snapchat for a long time, Threads could be considered another attempt in chipping away at Snapchat’s appeal.

Threads opts into automatic sharing, so it’ll update users’ status regularly, which will provide their friends with information about their speed, location and so on. According to some sources familiar with this matter, Threads currently doesn’t display users’ real-time location, but the app may share something like a friend of yours is “on the move.”

Also, users can update their status manually, and their statuses will appear in the app’s main feed alongside messages. It is the latest attempt in automating status sharing by using the sensors of the mobile phone as well as status sharing with one tap. (There was an app named Status trying something like that in 2014 while the Free app of Danny Trinh took another approach one year later.)

Threads' core is messaging, and this app looks like a current messaging feature inside Instagram. All messages of users’ friends show up in the central feed, alongside a green dot which indicates who is active at the moment. Users can also view their friends’ recent story inside Threads. Moreover, the app includes a camera for users to capture videos and photos and share with their close friends.

Nevertheless, the launch date of Threads is still unclear. Facebook – the parent company may cease development before showing the application to the public, which was what Facebook did with the old app – Direct. However, in March, Mark Zuckerberg – Facebook’s CEO said that private messaging is seen as the company’s future. Threads can be considered Facebook’s latest attempt in making that vision become a reality.