Some of the recent reports have claimed that social networking giant Facebook is planning to combine messaging service across its applications including Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp. This means that a WhatsApp user will be able to chat with an Instagram user and thus breaking down the barriers between Facebook’s social platforms. On the other hand a Messenger user would be able to send end-to-end encrypted conversation with someone who only has a WhatsApp account.
At the same time, WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram will remain separate apps on the home screen but the common messaging features will be unified. The social network had appeared to confirm the report in a statement to a leading daily. The upcoming move can prove to be a strategic shift in Facebook operations. So far WhatsApp and Instagram have been able to largely develop themselves independently.
More reports have revealed that some of the employees at Instagram and WhatsApp are not happy with the Facebook’s change of direction which appears to be led by the CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The Instagram cofounders have departed last year and which was as per reports a response to other parts of Facebook trying to exert more firm control over the Instagram product. People who know about the matter said that Mr. Zuckerberg had called for a follow-up meeting with the WhatsApp employees later in the week and on December 7, 2018 the employees had gathered around the microphones at the WhatsApp office to ask the Facebook CEO why he was so interested in merging services. Some of them had said that his answers were vague and meandering.
It seems like the WhatsApp employees are annoyed by the plans. The users can have anonymity on Instagram and WhatsApp unlike Facebook. This has posed a challenge for the linking of the services and it is not immediately clear how the integration would be achieved.
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