New Instagram App Is All About Sharing Your Data – But Should You?

Facebook is reportedly working on a new app that focuses on sharing data -- yes, your data -- with your close friends. The most recent social media innovation is a messaging app that will be a companion feature for Instagram.

The question is, is the app really worth enough to share your data, which includes not just your location but also information like your phone's battery life?

All About Sharing

The new Instagram app focused on messaging will be called Threads. This new app will be designed to be a more intimate messaging platform intended to promote intimate sharing between users and their friends in the “close friends” section of their Instagram account.

The Pros

Threads gives Instagram users a wider perspective and deeper definition of sharing. Aside from sending photos, videos and files that go along messages, this new app sends an invite to users to share their location as well as the speed of their movement, which seems to be a variation of the location tracking feature that some apps offer.

Threads users are also invited to share with their close friends their battery life which lets their friends know if they cannot reply or they just don't want to be disturbed. The new Instagram app even lets users’ friends know if they are on the move, like commuting, or they are just in the perfect mode to interact online.

Threads gives Instagram users two options on how to have their status is updated. They may choose to have their status updated regularly or they may choose to have it done manually. Users’ status update appears along with the messages making the “all about sharing” deal a reality.

The Cons

Since Threads aims at making the “all about sharing” doable, the company plans to make the battery life as well as the users' activity speed sharable. This could not be a welcome thing for those users who prefer to keep their browsing habits private. However, these features can only be activated upon responding to a 'Send' invite.

When To Expect Threads

Threads could be Instagram’s alternative to Direct, a messaging app that was developed in 2017 but frustrated its beta testers. As of the moment, the new Instagram app is being tested at Facebook internally with no official release date set yet.