Facebook Launches ‘Threads’ – A Messaging App From Instagram

With its recent move, Facebook has released a new product to rival Snapchat. As announced lately, Facebook has rolled-out its Threads app – a standalone messaging app from Instagram.

Overview Of Facebook Threads App

As revealed from a recent blog post by Director of Product, Instagram, Robby Stein, Facebook has rolled out a new application. Dubbed as ‘Threads’, the new app is basically a messaging app from Instagram. It’s a camera-first app allowing users to enjoy sharing pictures and videos with friends in a safe environment.

Elaborating about the app, Stein stated that Threads basically aims at providing a private messaging platform to the users. With Threads, users can share their content with Close Friends only. Since the app works over Instagram, users can easily create their list of ‘Close Friends’ to manage whom they share their content while using Threads. As stated in the blog post,

You can share photos, videos, messages, Stories and more with your Instagram close friends list. You are in control of who can reach you on Threads, and you can customize the experience around the people who matter most.

The Close Friends list remains private to the respective users only. Making any changes to the list does not notify others, and the list isn’t visible to anyone else. With Close Friends, users will only receive messages from the approved contacts.

Some of the prominent features of the app include:

Instant sharing of photos and videos with Close Friends by adding shortcuts.
Setting up ‘Status’. Users can either set their status manually or can turn on the ‘Auto Status’ feature which will automatically update whatever you are doing.

How 'Threads' Impact Users’ Privacy

Threads does however ask for some user data such as your location, however users can always manage this data permission.

For instance, the Auto Status feature demands access to your phone’s location, battery level, and network connection and movement. This information is vital for the feature to work in the desired manner. As described by Karina Newton, Instagram’s Head of Policy, in a separate blog post,

Auto Status might use your precise location to show your friends that you’re “At a cafe.” Or Auto Status might detect that you’re biking and set your status to “On the Move.” Before this is enabled, you’ll be told what information Auto Status is requesting and will be asked to specifically agree.

This Auto Status does not share this data (precisely, location) with Friends. Moreover, Facebook also claims not to save this data.

When Threads sends location information to our server to look up locations, it’s not stored there – this information is only stored on your device for a limited time. It is also deleted if you remove Threads.

For now, Facebook has pledged not to use this location data for ad targeting purposes.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

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