This is what Instagram wants you to share with your ‘close’ friends.
Mark Zuckerberg-led Facebook — which owns Instagram — is reportedly working on a new messaging app called Threads. This app — that is right now being internally tested — will be designed as a companion app for Instagram so users can share their location, speed and smartphone’s battery life with other users in their “close friends” list, claims a report by The Verge. The report further adds that the Threads app will allow the users to send text messages, photos and video messages “using Instagram’s creative tools.”
The report from The Verge also shows screenshots show that Instagram users will also get an option to send automatic updates. The ‘automatic updates’ can be enabled by a toggle and will allow “your phone to set your status for you based on your location, speed, movement and battery.” This doesn’t mean that the app will share the users’ real time location with the close friends but will notify when you are “on the move.”
Alternatively, users can select manual updates including free, busy, bored, going out, watching TV, hungry among others will their close friends. The app, however, will mainly focus on messaging and will indicate when the other users are active with a green dot. In addition to all the above features, the Threads app will allow the users to see the Instagram Stories of their close friends.
This upcoming app from Facebook doesn’t have any official launch date yet.
Recently, numerous Instagram account holders — including some of the well-known global celebrities — ended up sharing a post that claimed Instagram is changing its policy regarding the pictures you post, even though there was no official word from either Instagram or its parent company Facebook. Following this, Instagram chief Adam Mosseri posted an Instagram Story saying, “Heads up! If you’re seeing a meme claiming Instagram is charing its rule tomorrow, it’s not true – swipe up to learn more,” putting all these allegations to rest.
