Instagram and Facebook Messenger Users Can Now Communicate Across Platforms

The company also has plans to integrate WhatsApp messages in the future

A phone opened up to Instagram and Facebook Messenger
Facebook has merged DMs for its Messenger app and Instagram.
Courtesy of Facebook

As The Independent reports, Facebook Messenger and Instagram users can now message each other across platforms, thanks to an update that united the back-ends of both apps.

Users are able to control through their settings where they receive the messages, whether it’s in the chat portion of one of the apps, in their message requests folder or not at all. Instagram users will now be able to make video calls to Facebook Messenger users (and vice versa).

“More than a billion people already use Messenger as a place to share, hang out and express themselves with family and friends. That’s why we’re connecting the Messenger and Instagram experience to bring some of the best Messenger features to Instagram,” Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, and Stan Chudnovsky, head of Messenger, wrote in a joint blog post announcing the change.

Facebook has similar plans to integrate WhatsApp messages, but the social media company does not have a timeframe for when that is slated to occur.

“Right now, we are focused on cross-app communications Messenger and Instagram,” Facebook Technology Communications Manager Alexandru Voica tweeted. “We are still determining how cross-app communications will work with WhatsApp. WhatsApp will continue to remain a separate, end-to-end encrypted app at this time.”

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