CALIFORNIA: Facebook has launched an image-centric messaging app ‘Threads’ which is designed to weave tight circles of Instagram friends together while ramping up its challenge to rival Snapchat.
Director of Product at Instagram, Robby Stein said, “Threads is the fastest way to share a photo or video with your close friends on Instagram.”
Robby Stein said, “Messages from your close friend’s list will appear in both Threads and Direct, so you have full control over how and with whom you want to interact.”
Today, Facebook is launching Threads from Instagram, a new camera-first messaging app that helps you stay connected to your close friends. Learn more here: https://t.co/oMgMiKMT6Y pic.twitter.com/GbQzctLu1t
— Instagram (@instagram) October 3, 2019
The Threads is its own separate smartphone app, but ties into lists of “close friends” that Instagram began letting users create late last year, according to the director of product Robby Stein.
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The Threads app opens directly in smartphone cameras, making it easy to share photos or videos in a visual messaging style that has been a hit with young users who have flocked to Snapchat and Instagram.
Letting people shift from broadcasting images publicly to sharing more privately is also in keeping with an emphasis by Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg on creating digital living rooms rather than online town halls.
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