Instagram heard our cries about Elon Musk’s devastating Twitter takeover and is responding in turn — by basically giving us tweets on IG.
« We’re beginning to roll out Notes, a new way to share your thoughts and see what your friends are up to, » a press release from Instagram read. « Notes are short posts of up to 60 characters using just text and emojis. To leave a note, go to the top of your inbox, select the followers you follow back or people on your Close Friends list, and your note will appear at the top of their inbox for 24 hours. Replies to notes will arrive as DMs in your inbox. »
This comes just weeks after Elon Musk « let that sink in » to the Twitter headquarters and a few days after an internal meeting at Meta in which, according to the New York Times, one employee wrote in a post: « Twitter is in crisis and Meta needs its mojo back. LET’S GO FOR THEIR BREAD AND BUTTER. »
The aforementioned « BREAD AND BUTTER » of Twitter is, of course, its tweets. Instagram discovered through testing that users wanted a « lightweight, easy way to share what’s on their mind and start conversations. » Smells a lot like a tweet to me!
Meta is also giving BeReal a shot — a shock to no one who’s been tracking the frankly maniacal way Meta has been reshaping successful tools from other platforms to fit their own. « Candid » is a « new way for you and your friends to capture and share what you’re doing right now in a story that’s only visible to those who also share their own. » Users can post candids from the stories camera, the top of their feed, or « from the daily notification reminder that starts after your first candid. » That daily notification is a carbon copy of BeReal.
This isn’t the first time Meta has spotted a social media trend or platform and decided to duplicate it on their own. Eons ago, they created Stories in response to Snapchat’s success. Months ago, it began prioritizing Reels as a remarkably transparent attempt to snatch up TikTok’s user base. And, now, we can see it duplicating Twitter and BeReal’s most iconic features.
Maybe Mark Zuckerberg took that famous Oscar Wilde quote — « imitation is the sincerest form of flattery » — a bit too seriously.
