Instagram’s standalone close-friends app launched in 2019 under the name Threads.
Introduced in October 2019 for Android and iOS, the original Threads was designed for private communication with people on an Instagram user’s Close Friends list. It supported messages, photos, videos, video chats, and status updates, giving Instagram users a more intimate space apart from the main app.
The app is easy to confuse with other Instagram-made tools. Boomerang creates looping videos, Layout combines several photos into a collage, and Hyperlapse creates stabilized time-lapse videos. None of those apps was specifically built around close-friends messaging.
The original Threads did not become a lasting standalone service. Instagram discontinued it in December 2021, as many of its functions had been incorporated into Instagram and usage remained low. Meta later reused the Threads name for a separate text-based social network launched in 2023.