Instagram’s Threads is Testing an In-App Camera
Threads has started to test out one of its “most requested” features: an in-app camera.
On Thursday, Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced that Threads had started testing an in-app camera as well as drafts to a small number of people on the app.
“Testing more of your most requested features with a small number of people,” Mosseri writes on Threads.
“Beginning today, we’re testing the ability to save a draft to Threads by swiping down on your post, as well as a native camera that opens directly in the composer.”
The in-app camera opens the user’s smartphone camera from within Threads itself, so that users can more easily share photos and videos from their device.
On Friday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg made a post on the Threads platform showing a photo of a snowy mountain he says was taken with the new in-app camera that the company is testing.
It is still unclear if Threads users will get standard edit functions like cropping the image with this experimental in-app camera.
As well as the in-app camera, Threads is also testing drafts on the platform. Users will be able to save a post that they have created as a draft.
They can then edit and publish the post later by swiping down on their mobile device’s display on the app. When there is a draft saved, the app’s menu at the bottom of the screen highlights the post icon. It appears that Threads users can currently only save one draft at a time.
Threads is Now ‘On Track to Be a Major Success’
Meta’s Threads had a formidable start, hitting 100 million users barely a week after its launch in July and becoming the fastest growing app ever.
However, within a matter of weeks, engagement on Meta’s Twitter-rival Threads appeared to have dropped off as quickly as it had risen.
By the end of July, the platform’s daily active users had reportedly fallen by a staggering 70%.
However, earlier this month, Zuckerberg revealed that Threads had since been “growing steadily” and now has more than 130 million monthly active users.
“I’ll note that Threads now has more people actively using it today than it did during its initial launch peak,” Zuckerberg said during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings, according to TechCrunch.
“So that one’s I think on track to be a major success.”
Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.
