Facebook (Meta) are working on a new Twitter competitor

Meta’s “P92” project is a Mastodon compatible rival to Twitter

Meta, the parent company of both Facebook and Instagram has confirmed that they are working on a project codenamed P92, an alleged competitor to Elon Musk’s Twitter.

Currently, is it unknown what stage of development this alleged Twitter competitor is, though it is said to support ActivityPub, the decentralised protocol that powers Mastadon, another Twitter rival. The app is said to be an Instagram-branded app that is designed for sharing text-based content, something that is not well suited to Instagram’s primarily visual content. 

Below is what a Meta spokesperson has said regarding the topic. Based on this description, it looks like Meta is describing a decentralised version of Twitter without mentioning Twitter.

    We’re exploring a standalone decentralized social network for sharing text updates. We believe there’s an opportunity for a separate space where creators and public figures can share timely updates about their interests

It is currently unknown when Meta started work on P92, though many has speculated that work on this new app started when Elon Musk started his acquisition of Twitter. Under Musk’s leadership, Twitter has faced a wave of controversies, and Meta likely sees this as an opportunity to eat Twitter’s lunch with a new, decentralised, rival.

With Meta’s Twitter rival being decentralised, P92 is a project that functions a lot more like Reddit and Discord than Facebook and Instagram. This makes Meta’s rumoured Twitter rival unlike Meta’s other social media platforms in several critical ways, ways that will no doubt be appealing to many of the people who want to ditch Musk’s Twitter.  

You can join the discussion on Meta’s planned twitter rival on the OC3D Forums.