The latest Instagram assault on Snapchat is an email application called Threads

Facebook is developing a new messaging application called Threads, designed to promote constant and intimate sharing between users and their closest friends. The edge has learned. Threads, designed as a companion app for Instagram, invites users to automatically share with friends their location, speed, and self-sufficiency, as well as more classic text, photo, and video messages with the help of creative tools. 39; Instagram. The app, designed to be shared with your "close friends" list on Instagram, is now being tested internally on Facebook.

Instagram declined to comment.

In May, Instagram stopped working on Direct, a standalone email application that it had been developing since late 2017. At the time, officials claimed that beta testers were frustrated with having to switch between Instagram and a second app whenever they wanted to send a message. . But the company remained interested in building new messaging experiences, leaders said. Instagram employees working on messaging were transferred to the Facebook Messenger team earlier this year as part of a broader consolidation between the parent company and its estimated acquisition.

A messaging app built around your close friends might be more popular. This is what Snapchat already is today for a good part of its users. Reports have indicated that the average Snapchat user spends more time inside the app than the average user. For Facebook and Instagram, which have long coveted Snapchat's strong commitment to younger users, Threads could be an extra effort to reduce the appeal of their rival.

The Threads work logo, a new Facebook and Instagram messaging app

Screenshots commented by The edge View an app designed to promote constant, automatic sharing between users and people on their "close friends" list on Instagram. Turn on auto sharing and Threads will update your status regularly, giving your friends a real-time view of your location, speed, and more. At the moment, Threads does not display your location in real time. He can rather say that your friend is "on the move," according to sources close to the subject.

You can also update your status manually, with statuses appearing in the main stream along with messages. This is the latest effort to automate status sharing with mobile phone sensors and one-click status sharing. (An application called Status tried something similar in 2014 and the free application of Danny Trinh took another approach in 2015.)

The heart of Threads seems to be messaging, and it looks a lot like the existing messaging product in Instagram. Messages from your friends appear in a central stream, with a green dot indicating which of your friends are currently active. If your friend recently posted a story, you can also view it from Threads. Threads also has a camera that you can use to capture photos and videos and send them to your close friends.

It's unclear when Threads could be launched. Facebook could end development before publishing the application to the general public, as was the case with Direct. But Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in March that he sees private messaging as the future of the company. Threads seems to represent the last effort of the company to realize this vision.