Facebook yet again working on a Snapchat-like app – it is “Threads”

Facebook is working on another messaging app to compete with Snapchat. It is called “Threads”. According to “The Verge”, this app is meant to promote constant, intimate sharing between users and their closest friends.

Wonder why Facebook is intent in introducing yet another app? Well Facebook is intent on winning the messaging war since it believes it is at the very heart of its offering. So it is only natural that this would be the core of the company’s innovative efforts.

And it has been reported that the average Snapchat user spends more time inside the app than the average Instagram user does. Facebook would not let this slide easily hence its attempt to lure young users with “Threads”.

Threads is supposed to be a companion app with Facebook’s photo sharing app, Instagram. “It invites users to automatically share their location, speed, and battery life with friends, along with more typical text, photo, and video messages using Instagram’s creative tools,” according to the report.

“The app, which is designed for sharing with your “close friends” list on Instagram, is now being tested internally at Facebook.”

In May this year, Instagram announced that it had stopped work on Direct, a standalone messaging app that had more than a passing resemblance to Snapchat. It had been developing this app since late 2017

According to the report, “Screenshots reviewed by The Verge show an app that’s designed to promote constant, automatic sharing between users and the people on their “close friends” list on Instagram. Opt in to automatic sharing, and Threads will regularly update your status, giving your friends a real-time view of information about your location, speed, and more. At the moment, Threads does not display your real-time location — instead, it might say something like a friend is “on the move,” according to sources familiar with the matter.”

“The core of Threads appears to be messaging, and it looks very similar to the existing messaging product inside Instagram. Messages from your friends appear in a central feed, with a green dot indicating which of your friends are currently active. If your friend has posted a story recently, you can view that from inside Threads as well. Threads also has a camera, which you can use to capture photos and videos and send them to your close friends.”

It is however unclear when Threads would launch.