Last year, we started hearing about the reports claiming that Facebook might end up replacing the Instagram Direct with Messenger chats. It looks like the social media giant has now made up its mind and is indeed looking to do the merger. According to a new report by The Verge, Facebook has started merging Instagram and Messenger chats with a new update in the United States.
The update is rolling out with the message “There’s a new way to message on Instagram” while also highlighting key features. These include “new colorful look for your chats”, “react with any emoji”, “swipe to reply to messages” and “chat with friends who use Facebook”. The last one might appeal to a lot of potential users out there who are on Instagram but not using Facebook on the other hand.
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As you might have guessed, the Direct icon on the Instagram app will get replaced with the Messenger icon once the app is updated. The report further adds that the sender’s messages shift between blue and purple while scrolling. With that said, the new update seems to be only hitting limited users residing in the US. There is no report for other regions as of now.
Facebook wants to unify the chats of all its social media platforms!
We are already aware of the fact that Facebook is planning to merge the chat section of all of its social media platforms. This will allow users to seamlessly cross-message among Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp. With this new infrastructure, the social media giant wants to allow users who are on any one of the apps to communicate with the remaining ones. Furthermore, this system will be end-to-end encrypted according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
If the current merger of Instagram and Messenger chats remains successful, we should be witnessing this unification across all the three apps soon. At the time of writing this, those who have downloaded the new update are able to chat with friends on Facebook. Sadly, the same is not true for vice versa. With that said, we should see that happening as well in the foreseeable future.
If you’re someone who’s residing outside of the United States and have received this new update, then do let us know in the comments down below.
