Facebook developing Instagram companion app to take on Snapchat

On Monday, The Verge reported that Facebook is working on a standalone messaging app designed to work with Instagram.

Like Snapchat, Threads will let users constantly share intimate content like their current location, movement speed and battery level.

Though Instagram stopped developing companion messaging app Direct in May 2019, Facebook never ceased its work on Threads, as reported by The Verge.

This standalone app is designed to help users have more intimate and Snapchat-inspired relationships with their "close friends" on the 'Gram.

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According to tech media, Threads "invites users to automatically share their location, speed and battery like with friends, along with more typical text, photo, and video messages using Instagram's creative tool," much like what Snapchatters can already do on the platform.

According to The Verge, the application is now being internally tested.

Essentially, Threads will promote and encourage constant communication between friends. Users will be able to update their status giving people info about where they are and how fast they're going.

However, The Verge's sources indicated that as of now, Threads does not share users' exact live locations; instead, "it might say something like a friend is 'on the move.'"

Apart from these features, the app is expected to function similarly to the native messaging tool within Instagram.

Currently, the development is still under wraps. Whether Threads will hit the consumer market or not is still unknown.