Facebook Merges Direct Messages for Instagram and Messenger
On Wednesday, photo and video sharing platform Instagram unveiled a new option to connect Instagram direct messages with Messenger. It means that now Instagram users can send messages to people on Facebook, and vice versa.
Facebook released the update in its latest blog post. The new feature will pop up to some users when they login to the app. However, if users wish for, they can keep their Messenger and Instagram DMs separate.
Nevertheless, if the user does opt for the latest feature, the somewhat easy messaging experience on Instagram will become quite similar to Messenger. The new update will allow Instagram users to use some additional features such as message forwarding, customizing chat threads with preferred colors, and using nicknames.
Plenty of new features, including selfie stickers, custom emoji reactions, Watch Together (which lets users watch trending videos with friends), and vanish mode, which lets you set messages to automatically delete after a specific time has also been added. Facebook further added that some features will arrive on Instagram first and visible on Messenger soon after that.
The merger is a welcoming one for people as it enables them to use one of these platforms to reach out and connect with people on the other platform, without the hassle to download an app separately. In addition, the messages and calls from Instagram to Instagram users will remain in the Instagram application.
In his talk from early 2019, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said end-to-end encryption is one of the key benefits of knitting all of Facebook’s messaging apps together. Messenger and WhatsApp already have end-to-end encryption, but Instagram does not.
However, Facebook didn’t confirm encryption as part of the latest update. According to Wired, full end-to-end encryption to Instagram remains on the Company’s plans, but there’s no clear timeline as to when it will get there.
Facebook will be releasing this update to users over the next few months.
