Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is developing a standalone text-based social network app that could potentially compete with both Twitter and its decentralised rival, Mastodon.
According to reports, Meta is exploring the creation of a decentralised social network for sharing text updates, providing a separate space where public figures and creators can share timely updates about their interests.
Meta’s Twitter-like app would allow the company to take advantage of the current confusion at Twitter, where cost-cutting has been widespread ever since Elon Musk’s takeover of the platform late last year. Companies have withdrawn their spending following Twitter’s restoration of suspended accounts and release of a paid account verification that resulted in scammers impersonating firms.
The new app, codenamed P92, will allow users to log in using their existing Instagram credentials and will be based on a similar framework to Mastodon, a Twitter-like service launched in 2016.
The decentralised platform cannot be run at the whim of a single entity and cannot be bought or sold. Meta’s plans come at a time when Facebook, its largest platform, is struggling to capture the attention of younger audiences. In addition, the company has invested heavily in the metaverse, a virtual world where users interact and work, which has yet to come to fruition.
Instagram, its video-sharing app, is also facing tough competition as content creators or hit influencers abandon the platform in favour of TikTok. It is currently unclear when Meta will launch the new app.
