Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is building a standalone text-based content app that will be compatible with ActivityPub, the decentralized social networking protocol that powers Mastodon and other decentralized apps that compete with Twitter.
The upcoming app, codenamed P92, will carry the Instagram brand and allow users to log in with their Instagram credentials, according to a TechCrunch report.
The P92 team plans to follow the “fork” approach in the initial release of the product, with user profiles populated with their Instagram account details such as name, username, bio, profile photo, and followers.
Per product instructions, the app will adhere to the company’s current privacy policy, but will also have a supplemental privacy policy and terms of service that will specifically address data sharing between apps.
Tech companies and startups have tried to take advantage of the growing tendency of Twitter users to seek alternative platforms. In recent months, several rival platforms such as Mastodon, Post.news, and T2 have launched or gained ground in their efforts to attract these users.
The current plan for the minimum viable product (MVP) is to allow users to broadcast messages to people on other servers. However, it has not yet been decided whether users will be able to follow and view other people’s content on other servers.
The initial version of the app will include features such as tappable links on posts with previews, user bio, username, verification badges, shareable images and videos. It will also have features such as followers and likes, but it is not known if the first version of the product will include comments and messaging.
The development team is also looking into allowing content to be re-shared like Twitter, but only for business and creator accounts. From the beginning, the MVP will integrate a rights manager for its own content, but not for third-party content from other applications and servers.
Cointelegraph has contacted Meta for confirmation. This article will be updated when new information becomes available.
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