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Meta planning to use Instagram to supplant Twitter – here’s the proof

Instagram’s rumoured Twitter-rival may have been exposed via apparent leaked images that show a text-based platform that looks quite a bit similar to Twitter itself.

The leak appears to show an internal slide explaining the perks of the forthcoming app and comes via Lia Haberman’s ICYMI newsletter.

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Described in the slide as a ‘text-based app for conversations’ which will enable users to post text, as well as attaching links, photos, and videos. Likes, replies, etc. Sounds an awful lot like Twitter too.

The pitch promises users will be able to bring their followers along for the ride, but those follow counts will seemingly exist independently of the Instagram app with the option to bring them into the fold.

The slide published as part of the newsletter also says users on third-party apps like Mastodon will be able to “search for, follow and interact with your profile and content”.

Instagram text based apps

The newsletter has more juicy little nuggets as well, including a potential launch date at the end of June. Handles, bios and verification will carry over from IG. Text updates will be up to 500 characters and the videos will be up to 5-minutes long. Blocked accounts on IG will carry over, while their same community guidelines will be in place, and 2-factor authentication is also possible.

“There are currently no set plan for monetization being shared, which could mean no ads to start? In which case, expect the emphasis to be on an organic social strategy,” Haberman writes in the post.

“The micro text updates the app allows might even replace the Twitter screenshots that seem to have overrun the Feed recently?! But, of course, any time a new app launches it’s impossible to predict exactly how audiences will respond. So, as always, prepare to adapt.”

The timing may be perfect for Meta to make its move, considering the ever growing dissatisfaction with Twitter under Elon Musk’s topsy turvy ownership.

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