Since Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter final fall, the microblogging web site has seen its share of untamed ups and downs. Alternatives have sprung up within the wake of the chaos, like Mastodon and Bluesky, however a brand new competitor is about be part of the fray: Meta, the dad or mum firm of Instagram and Facebook.

Calling it “our response to Twitter,” Meta’s chief product officer Chris Cox unveiled the brand new standalone app throughout a current company-wide assembly attended by The Verge. Based on Instagram, it can combine with ActivityPub, the decentralized protocol that powers Mastodon—which seemingly will enable customers to maneuver with their followers to a completely totally different app if that’s the case desired.

Dubbed “Project 92” in inner documentation later seen by The Verge, the brand new app will pull from Instagram to routinely populate a consumer’s data—probably making it simpler for folks to leap proper in. Coding started in January, and Meta plans to launch the app (presumably with the identify “Threads”) as quickly as it could actually.

Meta / The Verge

During the reveal, Cox stated that Project 92 was born from conversations with public figures who wished a “platform that is sanely run,” and a few have already dedicated to utilizing the brand new app. Given the wild swings seen at Twitter, which has included mass layoffs, leaked user data, the death of third-party apps, ever-changing features, and major bugs since Musk took over in October 2022, Meta’s aim to create a secure service that may be trusted for “safety, reliability, and ease of use” gained’t must do a lot to tick these containers.

Discussions are presently underway with celebrities like Oprah and the Dalai Lama to carry them to the brand new platform.