Threads was originally going to live inside the Instagram app
1 min read
Summary
Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, testified on Tuesday that the company had considered making Threads, its Snapchat-like messaging app, into an Instagram feature instead of a separate application.
The information emerged during Meta’s antitrust lawsuit, where the company is battling accusations that it deliberately stifled competitors to sustain its monopoly.
According to Mosseri, Meta’s employees decided to launch Threads as a separate app in order to differentiate it from Instagram’s core thrust as a video- and image-based platform.
He said that Threads would have been too confusing for users if it had been launched as an Instagram feature because text-based messaging is inherently different in terms of the user experience and the user interface.
Threads and Instagram are connected, as an Instagram account is required to use Threads, and a user’s Instagram profile truncates the content they post on Threads.