Facebook announced today that it will begin rolling out new features that will allow Instagram and Messenger users to communicate between apps, as well as bringing a variety of Messenger -Instagram inspired features incoming mail. On Instagram, users will be presented with an option to upgrade to a new messaging experience that offers the ability to change the color of the chat, react with any emoji, watch videos together, set messages to disappear, and more. As part of this update, they will also have the ability to chat with friends who use Facebook, the app will notify them.
The wide array of funnier additions to Instagram's inbox will serve as a way to entice users to accept the update. This decision, in turn, further blocks users within the Facebook universe. With cross-platform messaging interoperability, users may see fewer reasons to try a different chat app as a single messaging app can reach friends and family through two of the largest social networks in the world.
Facebook says the new interop will work even if Instagram users don't have a Facebook account and vice versa.
Over time, Facebook plans to integrate WhatsApp into the experience as well, further consolidating its market power.
While many users may choose to upgrade for fun enhancements, Facebook notes that they may then choose not to be reachable on platforms using new privacy controls, after the fact.
Through an expanded set of privacy tools, users can specify who can reach their main chat list, who gets sent to the Message Requests folder, and who can't reach them at all. If an Instagram user doesn't want to hear from anyone on Facebook, they can disable this feature.
These controls can also be managed in the new Accounts Center, which Facebook launched yesterday. The tool allows users to manage a growing set of cross-app features, such as Single Sign On and Facebook Pay.
As before, users of the Instagram and Messenger apps will be able to block and report suspicious and unwanted messages and calls as needed. But blocking and reporting will be expanded to allow users to report full conversations in addition to individual messages on Instagram. The "Safety Alerts" feature in Messenger, which helps users identify and respond to suspicious activity, will also arrive on Instagram, initially for children's accounts.
Even if you agree to be reachable on multiple platforms, Facebook makes it clear that it isn't actually merging your inboxes.
In other words, you won't see all of your Instagram chats on Messenger or vice versa. Messages from Instagram users and calls from friends and family will remain in the Instagram app, but may now include messages initiated by a Facebook user, if allowed.
If these changes seem a bit confusing, it might be by design. Facebook and Instagram users must navigate a maze of privacy and security settings that get complicated each year as the functionality offered by Facebook networks expands. Although Facebook offers a range of nuanced controls, many users no longer bother trying to understand them, as they constantly change, move, or get complicated.
Consumers can view messaging interoperability only as a convenient way to reach their friends on other services. But for industry watchers, it's another example of how Facebook appears to be leveraging its market dominance to stifle new competition. For a company already subjected to multiple antitrust investigations, it's a move that seems to be poking at government regulators.
The project to make Facebook's chat platforms interoperable was a significant technical feat from an infrastructure perspective. Last year, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg detailed the company's plans for messaging interoperability as part of its broader vision for a more private social networking experience.
Earlier this summer, Facebook began testing the changes with a small percentage of users.
In terms of the broader update beyond interoperability, Instagram users will also be able to watch videos together, including those from Facebook Watch and soon Reels.
They will also be able to make their messages disappear, like Snapchat, with a "Vanish Mode" option. Other new features include Boomerang-like "Selfie Stickers", the ability to customize chat colors, use custom emoji reactions, forward messages with up to five friends or groups, directly reply to a specific message in a group chat for clarity and add visual flair to messages with animated effects.
Facebook says the features will begin rolling out to the general public, initially with a handful of countries around the world before expanding globally.