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Instagram's new Threads app is just for messaging your close friends

Threads is a standalone app for sharing with close friends.

Erin Carson Former Senior Writer
Erin Carson covered internet culture, online dating and the weird ways tech and science are changing your life.
Expertise Erin has been a tech reporter for almost 10 years. Her reporting has taken her from the Johnson Space Center to San Diego Comic-Con's famous Hall H. Credentials
  • She has a master's degree in journalism from Syracuse University.
Erin Carson
threads

Threads is a new companion app for Instagram.

Instagram

Instagram users are getting a camera-first standalone app called Threads, for sharing with close friends.

In a blog post Thursday, Instagram described Threads as "a new way to message with close friends in a dedicated, private space." If you use Threads, you will be able to share messages, photos video and Stories with the more exclusive list of friends you might have set up, instead of sharing everything to everyone. 

The app also offers the ability to set a status, or an auto status which "automatically shares little bits of context on where you are without giving away your coordinates." For example, it could show when you're at home. 

Threads was initially rumored in August and follows the demise of Instagram's other companion messaging app, Direct. It starts rolling out Thursday. 

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