Meta is planning to release a new social network that aims to be an alternative home for Twitter users who are unhappy with what Elon Musk has done to the service.
As The Verge reports, a Meta executive demonstrated a preview version of the Twitter alternative, which is known internally as "Project 92," at a company-wide meeting this week. When it arrives, the final name is expected to be Threads, a name we first heard about in 2021 as a way for Facebook users to post connected messages.
Meta started work on Project 92 in January and views it as "our response to Twitter." The new service needs to hit the ground running with a large user base when it launches, so it will use Instagram's existing account system to allow the personal information of each Instagram user to be automatically transfered over. Instagram currently has well over 2 billion active monthly users.
During the meeting, Meta Chief Product Officer Chris Cox said, "We’ve been hearing from creators and public figures who are interested in having a platform that is sanely run, that they believe that they can trust and rely upon for distribution." He also confirmed that celebrities, including the Dalai Lama, DJ Slime, and Oprah, have already committed to using the service.
Meta opted to use the open, decentralized social networking protocol ActivityPub for this project, which is already used by Mastodon. That doesn't guarantee interoperability between the two competing services, but could make it easier for Mastodon accounts to migrate to Project 92. The reverse is also possible, but it seems unlikely Meta would want to make it easy for accounts to migrate away from its ecosystem.
As for when Project 92/Threads will launch, all Cox would say is, "as soon as we can."
Elon Musk recently stepped down as Twitter CEO, though he's still CTO. Meanwhile, Twitter Blue continues to be tweaked in a bid to encourage more users to pay for it. The latest change is an extension of the tweet-editing time from 30 minutes to an hour.