Meta’s new Instagram-branded app to support decentralized social networking protocol

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is developing a new text-based content app that will support ActivityPub — the decentralized social networking protocol. The upcoming app, codenamed P92, will be Instagram-branded, allowing users to log in with their existing Instagram credentials.

The P92 team plans to leverage a “fork” approach for their initial product version. Users’ profiles will be filled in with details from their Instagram accounts, including name, username, bio, profile photo, and followers. This new app is seen as a direct competitor to Twitter and other decentralized apps.

Technology companies and startups have been tapping into the growing trend of Twitter users seeking alternative platforms. In recent months, rival platforms such as Mastodon, Post.news, and T2 have launched or gained traction to attract these users. The product brief for this app states that it will strictly adhere to the company’s current privacy policy and also feature a supplementary privacy policy and terms of service, which will explicitly address cross-app data sharing. This additional layer of security is essential to ensure users’ data remains protected from any unauthorized access or misuse.

The MVP for the app will allow users to broadcast posts to other servers, but it remains undecided whether users can follow and view content from those servers. The app’s initial version will include features like tappable links with previews, user bios, username verification badges, images, and videos that can be shared, as well as followers and likes. However, it is unclear whether commenting and messaging functionality will be included in the product’s initial version.

The development team is exploring allowing content to be reshared like Twitter, only for business and creator accounts. They are also considering integrating a rights manager into the MVP to protect first-party content but not third-party content from other apps or servers. This would enable businesses and creators to securely share their own digital assets while protecting the rights of others.