There’s a new heavyweight reportedly joining the growing list of Twitter alternatives.
Meta is reportedly planning its own version of a text-based social media app that would square off against Twitter, which has been in decline since Elon Musk took the reins. Word of Meta’s as-yet-unnamed feature (codenamed P92 or Barcelona) comes as the number of daily active users on Facebook begins to climb once more and user time spent on Instagram was up 24% in the company’s most recent quarter. Instagram is reportedly leading the charge on this Twitter alternative. Users will be able to sign in with their Instagram username and will see their handle, bio, followers, and verification status populated into the app. (Blocked users on Instagram will remain blocked on the new tool.)
The fact that Instagram boasts strong name recognition and retention could bode well for Meta, which remains under fire from competitors like TikTok. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is hoping this Twitter alternative could deliver a substantial boost in overall users—many of whom appear to be there for the taking, thanks in large part to Musk’s blunders.
Last October, as Musk made a series of rapid, often unpopular, changes to Twitter, the company internally acknowledged its most-active users were leaving the platform. That doesn’t seem to be abating, as a recent Pew Research Center study found that 60% of the site’s users have taken a Twitter break for “several weeks or more” over the past year.
To date, no competitor has emerged as the clear choice for those disenfranchised users. Mastodon has turned heads but isn’t as user-friendly as Twitter (forcing it to streamline its sign-up process earlier this month). BlueSky has seen a surge of interest, but it’s still in early beta and many would-be users are unable to join at present.
Meta’s Twitter alternative could launch by June, says Lia Haberman, who first broke details about the service.
Posts can reportedly be up to 500 characters, and, since the app is decentralized, it’s said to be compatible with some other Twitter alternatives, including Mastodon. Videos and images will be supported as well.
(Meta did not immediately respond to Fast Company’s request for comment about the new product.)
That decentralization could be a big advantage, too, experts say.
“By making its new platform interoperable with Mastodon, Meta becomes appealing to those public figures who moved on from Twitter already and are looking to reach a bigger audience,” says David A. Schweidel, a marketing professor at Emory’s Goizueta School of Business. “The ability to tap into Meta’s built-in user base is going to be very appealing to these content creators, rather than trying to build up a following on some new to-be-built platform.”
Content creators, of course, are key to the success of the platform. Power users might make up just 10% of Twitter’s audience, but they were responsible for 90% of all tweets and half of the company’s global revenue.
Should those users eventually land at a Meta-controlled platform, that could give it another big user advantage over other options.
“For Meta, by bringing in these content creators, the bet is that they will contribute to users being more active on the platform, which allows Meta to generate more revenue through ad sales,” said Schweidel. “This makes a microblogging platform appealing to Meta.”
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