New reports in the Wall Street Journal and the Verge have revealed that Facebook parent Meta Platforms is releasing a stand-alone app which will be launched through Instagram and designed to compete with social media platform Twitter.

On Thursday Chief Product Officer Chris Cox, who referred to it as Meta’s response to Twitter, demonstrated the app during a company-wide meeting.

Based on Instagram, the app will integrate with the decentralized social media protocol ActivityPub. It has been noted this will likely allow users of the new app to bring their accounts and followers to other apps which support ActivityPub, including Mastodon.

The Verge, which observed the meeting and had screenshots of the upcoming apps interface, quoted Cox as saying, “We’ve been hearing from creators and public figures who are interested in having a platform that is sanely run, that they believe that they can trust and rely upon for distribution.”

Cox noted the app would be designed to embody “safety, ease of use, reliability” and be designed to give creators a “stable place to build and grow their audiences.”

He said that Meta had already secured the participation of a number of celebrities on the app, including DJ Slime, and negotiations were ongoing with others, including Oprah and the Dalai Lama.

The app’s development began in January according to Cox, and he added that Meta would be making it available as soon as possible.

Internally the app is codenamed “Project 92” and there are rumors its public name may be Threads, according to the Verge, which viewed internal documents.

Meta reportedly began developing the app in response to criticism of Twitter’s policies following its acquisition by Elon Musk. Since Musk’s takeover, numerous left-leaning users have left the app, claiming Musk’s changes in the rules cater to right wing users, making them feel unsafe.