The basic version of Threads for web was built in just under three months by two engineers, mirroring the nimble engineering practices we talked about on this podcast before when it came to launching Threads for Android and iOS. In this episode, Pascal is joined by Ally and Kevin, two engineers on the Threads Web team. They talk about how shared infrastructure with other Meta web properties allows them to move fast and how they manage to balance the need to ship new features with the desire to craft delightful experiences for their users.

Got feedback? Send it to us on Threads (https://threads.net/@metatechpod), Twitter (https://twitter.com/metatechpod), Instagram (https://instagram.com/metatechpod) and don’t forget to follow our host @passy (https://twitter.com/passy, https://mastodon.social/@passy, and https://threads.net/@passy_). Fancy working with us? Check out https://www.metacareers.com/.

Links

• Threads: https://threads.net

• StyleX: https://stylexjs.com/

• FlowJS: https://flow.org/

• Introducing Meta Llama 3: https://ai.meta.com/blog/meta-llama-3/

• Building custom silicon for the future of AI: https://www.metacareers.com/life/building-custom-silicon-for-the-future-of-ai

• Building Meta’s GenAI Infrastructure: https://engineering.fb.com/2024/03/12/data-center-engineering/building-metas-genai-infrastructure/

Timestamps

• Intro 0:06

• Intro Ally and Kevin 1:44

• Why focus on Web? 2:48

• Kevin's contributions 4:42

• Focus on craft 6:18

• Editing Threads 7:34

• Ally's contributions 10:40

• Prioritising delight and shipping features 12:02

• Launching Threads Web 13:30

• Shared Infra 16:13

• Tech Stack 19:15

• The DevX of Meta www 23:51

• Challenges 30:57

• Favourite bit of polish 34:32

• Outtakes 39:18

Every day, trillions of image download requests are made from Meta’s family of apps. Zuzanna works on the Media Platform Team that owns the entire flow from serving images from the CDN to displaying the pixels on your phone. One of the project she and her team recently worked on was rolling out HDR images to Instagram and Threads and in this episode’s interview, Zuzanna tells show host Pascal how they partnered with large phone manufacturers to develop and roll out the new feature.

Got feedback? Send it to us on Threads (https://threads.net/@metatechpod), Twitter (https://twitter.com/metatechpod), Instagram (https://instagram.com/metatechpod) and don’t forget to follow our host @passy (https://twitter.com/passy, https://mastodon.social/@passy, and https://threads.net/@passy_). Fancy working with us? Check out https://www.metacareers.com/.

Links

• Fresco: https://frescolib.org/

Timestamps

• Intro 0:06

• Intro Zuza 1:44

• Image Infra Team 3:23

• The scale of images at Meta 5:10

• Measuring quality 10:01

• HDR photos 12:13

• HDR file formats 19:02

• HDR photo availability today 22:34

• Partnering with phone vendors 30:40

• Why photos after videos? 32:27

• Outro 36:22

Distributing binaries and toolchains to developers is a pain but DotSlash makes it a breeze. Instead of committing large, platform-specific executables to your repository, DotSlash combines a fast Rust program with a JSON manifest prefixed with a #! to transparently fetch and execute the binary you need. Tune in to our interview with Andres and Michael to learn more.

Got feedback? Send it to us on Threads (https://threads.net/@metatechpod), Twitter (https://twitter.com/metatechpod), Instagram (https://instagram.com/metatechpod) and don’t forget to follow our host @passy (https://twitter.com/passy, https://mastodon.social/@passy, and https://threads.net/@passy_). Fancy working with us? Check out https://www.metacareers.com/.

Links

• Simple Precision Time Protocol at Meta: https://engineering.fb.com/2024/02/07/production-engineering/simple-precision-time-protocol-sptp-meta/ 

• Meta Time libraries on GitHub: https://github.com/facebook/time 

• DotSlash - Simplified executable deployment: https://engineering.fb.com/2024/02/06/developer-tools/dotslash-simplified-executable-deployment/ 

• DotSlash website: https://dotslash-cli.com/ 

• DotSlash on GitHub: https://github.com/facebook/dotslash 

Timestamps

• Intro 0:05

• Intro Andres 2:30

• Intro Michael 3:39

• Andres's Projects at Meta 3:54

• Michael's Projects at Meta 5:00

• What is DotSlash? 5:30

• DotSlash vs LFS 6:04

• DotSlash vs buck2 run 7:08

• Where is DotSlash used at Meta? 8:45

• How does DotSlash work? 9:37

• DotSlash on Windows 13:15

• How DotSlash is built 16:21

• Bundling the rust toolchain 17:14

• Automated DotSlash file generation 20:33

• DotSlash and remote execution 24:53

• Storage providers 26:27

• Why open-source? 30:05

• Limitations 34:17

• Cache Eviction 36:59

• Outro 39:22

• Bloopers 40:15