Facebook was once the behemoth of social media with a record number of users across the globe. However, after a number of big scandals and increased competition from apps owned by the company itself, Facebook’s future seems to be in trouble. Facebook’s main competitors include Instagram and big messaging apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger itself (that is required as a separate app) all of which are actually owned by Facebook. Although this means that Facebook is still very much dominating social media in many part of the globe, it also leads to a division of its user base. But what if users of all these apps could be able to message each other as a unified platform? This would be a great idea for increasing user engagement, and according to a report from NY Times, it’s under the works on the ground level.
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As per the report, Facebook’s Chief Executive, Mark Zuckerberg wants to unify the social network’s messaging services owned by Facebook. All other services from the apps will continue to work as stand-alone bu the technical infrastructure underlying instant messaging of all platforms will be unified, said four people aware of the matter.
It is worth noting that the plan is in its early stages but could be completed by the end of 2019 or early next year. The unified service will also be end-to-end encrypted which will be vital to get users to trust the new service. While the advantage for users is obvious, Facebook also stands to gain from this by keeping users inside its own ecosystem and increasing engagement.
