As Elon Musk gears up to hand over the Twitter CEO position to Linda Yaccarino, Meta Platforms Inc. META reportedly plans to launch a decentralized text-based social network this summer.
What Happened: Social media commentator Matt Navarra took to Twitter and shared new details about Meta’s highly-anticipated decentralized social network codenamed “P92” that could allow creators and public figures to share text-based updates.
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According to Navarra, Meta’s text-based app may launch in the summer of 2023. The tech giant is in the process of reaching out to top-tier influencers and celebrities to become early adopters of its upcoming app, allowing them to test it before the public release.
Navarra added that the new decentralized network will function as a standalone app but will be integrated with Instagram.
Simply put, users might keep their Instagram handle on the new platform and their followers will receive a notification to follow them on the decentralized app — a neat trick to build following quickly on P92.
What We Know So Far: In March, reports started circulating that Meta was considering developing its own Twitter alternative to capitalize on the growing dissatisfaction among users.
The Facebook parent later confirmed that it is exploring the possibility of creating a separate decentralized social network — initially codenamed “P92,” However, since then, rumors have been circulating that Meta’s project is moving ahead with the name “Barcelona.”
According to app researcher Alessandro Paluzzi, each thread can contain a maximum of 100 posts on the new standalone app, with each post having a character limit of 500. However, these numbers may change before the official release.
Why It’s Important: Previously, Musk mocked Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg for considering launching a Twitter rival and called him a “copy cat.”
In December, it was reported that Meta is building the next Twitter following the chaos brewed under Musk’s leadership.
“Twitter is in crisis and Meta needs its mojo back,” one Meta employee wrote in a post. “LET’S GO FOR THEIR BREAD AND BUTTER.”
Earlier this month, Musk went after Meta’s instant messaging app, WhatsApp, saying it “cannot be trusted.”
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