Facebook’s apps are probably too familiar to us, but right now, Facebook seems to be trying to optimize its ecosystem by merging Instagram and Messenger.
Some users on the evening of August 14 using iOS and Android devices received a pop-up message on Instagram with the content that “There’s a New Way to Message on Instagram” with a list of features including a “new colorful look for your chats“, more emoji reactions, swipe-to-reply, and the big one: “Chat with friends who use Facebook“.
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Once you hit update, the regular DM icon in the top right of Instagram is replaced by the Facebook Messenger logo. Chats on Instagram are indeed more colorful than before, with the sender’s messages shifting between blue and purple as you scroll.
However, at least for right now, it’s still not possible to message Facebook users from Instagram.
But Facebook has made clear its plans to unify the messaging platforms of its hugely popular apps to allow cross-messaging among Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
Facebook was said to be rebuilding the underlying infrastructure so users who were on only one of its apps could connect to others using different Facebook apps.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has also said he wants the system to be end-to-end encrypted. By integrating its most popular apps, Facebook may be able to compete more directly with Apple’s WhatsApp.
Source: The Verge
