It’s no secret that Meta has been developing an app to take on Twitter, which has been at its most vulnerable since Elon Musk took charge as owner last year. Reportedly called Project 92, The Verge has said that Meta product boss Chris Cox showed a preview of the app to employees during an allhands meeting. Earlier, Bloomberg had also reported on the app’s development.
If true, the app will use Instagram’s account system to populate a user’s information. And it will be integrated with ActivityPub, a decentralised social media protocol that connects users’ social media platforms and accounts into one manageable system. According to reports, discussions are on with Oprah and the Dalai Lama to use the app, which will be available “as soon as we can”, according to Cox. Coding for the app began in January and it may be ready soon. Since Elon Musk acquired Twitter for $44b, the company has been in the news for plummeting advertising revenues. Even though Musk says that his company’s advertising business is on the rise, The New York Times has reported that Twitter’s US advertising revenue for the five weeks from April 1 to the first week of May was $88 million, down 59 per cent from a year earlier. According to asset manager Fidelity, Twitter is now worth only $15 billion.