Facebook has been working since the beginning of 2019 on the integration of all its instant messaging applications, which is the largest development project ever undertaken the social network and considered as Mark Zuckerberg as crucial within the company’s strategy.
At first, users link the WhatsApp account on Instagram and can open the messaging tool from it
The union of the instant messaging systems of its entire family of applications will allow a user to write a message through Facebook Messenger and to respond to it through Instagram or WhatsApp -and other possible combinations- when all these applications of independently but with a “common mailbox”.
The coronavirus pandemic has delayed the development and launch of this integrated communications platform, but Facebook is taking small steps to achieve it. At the end of last year it already launched in some territories, such as the United States, the merger of the messaging functions between Facebook Messenger and Instagram.
The integration – which also involves bringing to Instagram the customer service tools for companies that Facebook Messenger has and many other functions that have been added later – has not yet been officially launched worldwide for the more than 1,200 million of users that Instagram has, but the company is already taking another step in the process of merging all its messaging tools.
Facebook has started testing so that users can send WhatsApp messages through Instagram. The company is conducting tests with some users, offering them a new option on Instagram that allows them to add the WhatsApp account. As they have pointed out on social networks, an option appears on their profile that says “Add WhatsApp to your profile.”
By doing so, you can send or receive messages from Instagram, just by pressing a button, through WhatsApp, whose account is linked once it is associated by entering the security code that will be sent to us on WhatsApp.
After associating the account, Instagram direct messaging, as it were, is replaced by WhatsApp. When you are going to send a message, this messaging tool opens, which makes you think that this is just a intermediate step in the total merger of the accounts. Possibly, at a more advanced stage, it is not necessary to leave Instagram to send the message, but WhatsApp messaging could be integrated into the social network.
We will have to be attentive to how the integration evolves in the coming months. At the moment, it is just a test that, in an unrecognized way, Facebook is carrying out with some users.
–
