Facebook appears to be in the process of integrating the chat systems for Instagram and Messenger, at least in the US. This looks to be the company’s next step to unify all of its platforms under one ecosystem. Prior to this, the social media giant had also pushed for several of Messenger’s functionalities to be included in their private messaging service Whatsapp.
According to a report by The Verge, several of its editors (and users) were greeted with an update screen in the Instagram mobile app. This was accompanied by the message “There’s a New Way to Message on Instagram” and a list of new features, such as an update to the chat interface, more emoji reactions, swipe-to-reply, and the ability to chat with friends on Facebook.
Once updated, Instagram’s Direct Messages icon on the top right of the screen is then replaced by the Messenger logo. The Verge noted that the chat interface is now more colourful than before, but did not mention if new features such as the added emojis or swipe-to-reply are already functional. That said, the site did notice that cross-messaging with Facebook users have not been implemented just yet.
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This new integration of Messenger into Instagram seems to be rolling out to select users in the US at this time. As with most major updates such as this, it is quite likely that Facebook will only release it in select regions or to a limited number of users for testing. There have been no official announcement by the company on when the rest of the world will be expecting this new feature to roll out.
(Source / Images: The Verge)
