Instagram Previously Launched A ‘Threads’ App That Was Nothing Like Today’s

Photo 177692373 © Mikhail Primakov | Dreamstime.com

Sorry, the old Threads can’t come to the phone right now. Why? ’Cause it’s dead.

Perhaps thanks in large to the pandemic wiping our collective memory, most people might not remember that Instagram once rolled out something called ‘Threads from Instagram’. The app debuted in October 2019, two years before the Facebook corporate brand became Meta, and long before Meta unleashed its “Twitter killer” called Threads.

As Yanko Design points out, the Threads of yore isn’t like Mark Zuckerberg’s new app of the same name (and speaking of identical names, in recent news, a previously obscure Threads app from another developer shot up app rankings on the back of Meta’s version). If the new Threads is like Twitter, then the old Threads was more like Snapchat.

Photo 209390734 © Mikhail Primakov | Dreamstime.com

Threads 1.0, a “camera-first messaging app that helps you stay connected to your close friends,” was short-lived. After pulling in a measly number of downloads, it shut down in 2021.

Around the time of the app’s launch, Instagram noticed that users were posting less on the longstanding photo-sharing network, and that they were instead communicating via DMs.

The company also observed that members enjoyed playing with its augmented-reality filters but rarely shared the results with their followers. All the light-hearted fun was kept between their close circles.

Essentially, Instagram deduced that users were partial to the Snapchat formula, so it introduced a similar standalone app called Threads.

Today, Facebook is launching Threads from Instagram, a new camera-first messaging app that helps you stay connected to your close friends. Learn more here: https://t.co/oMgMiKMT6Y pic.twitter.com/GbQzctLu1t

— Instagram (@instagram) October 3, 2019

2019’s Threads didn’t have the full-fat social elements of Instagram, but it had a camera, a direct messaging feature that synced to Instagram’s, and AR lenses.

Image via Instagram

Screenshot of cached Threads from Instagram page on Google Play Store / Wayback Machine

Where the two Threads intertwine is that both are/were connected to Instagram, enabling seamless interactions between apps. Alas, only one of them could live.

Threads, as you know it today, will likely enjoy more abundance than its forgotten predecessor. Meta’s latest social network is the fastest-growing app in history, having amassed 100 million users in less than a week. However, daily active usage has reportedly fallen by half following its astronomical rise.

[via Yanko Design, images via various sources]