Instagram has just launched Threads, a camera-first messaging app. It's a stand-alone app, but uses your Instagram contact list.
Instagram has been moving away from completely open sharing for a while - Stories delete by default after 24 hours, and Close Friends, launched last year, enable you to choose whether to share a post with all followers (e.g. including your auntie), or to a smaller circle of friends.
Threads is is camera-first, as opposed to WhatsApp, which is text first. Not surprisingly Snap’s share price dipped on this news.
It’s another example, with Facebook groups, and local networks like Nextdoor, of how social media is evolving into a less open, less public set of tools.
A big theme for the year ahead, I think.
