A text-based decentralized social network application that supports ActivityPub dubbed P92, is reportedly in the works by Facebook’s parent company Meta.
A second text-based content app that will support ActivityPub is purportedly being developed by Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. Mastodon and other decentralized applications that compete with Twitter are powered by ActivityPub, a decentralized social networking platform.
According to a TechCrunch article, the new app, code-named P92, will let users log in using their current Instagram accounts. Users will be able to sign up and log in to the new Instagram-branded app using existing Instagram credentials.
Users will initially sign up and log into the P92 app using their Instagram login information, and their profile will be pre-populated with their Instagram account information as part of the “fork” strategy that the P92 team intends to utilize with the MVP (e.g. name, username, bio, profile photo, followers).
The app will abide by the business’s current privacy policy, but it will also have a separate privacy policy and terms of service that particularly handle cross-app data exchange, according to the product brief.
Startups and technology companies have been attempting to capitalize on the rising trend of Twitter users looking for alternate platforms. In an effort to draw these people, a number of competing platforms, including Mastodon, Post.news, and T2, have recently emerged or acquired popularity.
Now, users will be able to broadcast posts to others on other servers as part of the minimal viable product (MVP). Whether users will be able to follow and read content from users on other servers is still up in the air, though.
The app’s initial release would have features including shareable photos and videos, user bios, usernames, and tappable links in posts with previews. It will also have features like followers and likes, although it’s unclear if the initial release of the app will include commenting and messaging capabilities.
The development team is also debating the prospect of limiting content resharing to corporate and creator accounts, similar to Twitter. For first-party material, the MVP will incorporate a rights manager right away; however, third-party content from other apps and servers won’t be included.
