Facebook plans to integrate WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook Messenger — NYTimes Report
- by Joann Nelson
- in Sci-tech
- — Jan 27, 2019
According to the New York Times, Zuckerberg now believes a unified backend will make all of Facebook's app more useful in the long term.
The outlet also said Zuckerberg has insisted the three apps should all boast end-to-end encryption in order to protect user privacy.
To be clear, integrating the three platforms would allow someone who only has a Facebook account to message someone who only has a WhatsApp account or Instagram account, or any combination thereof. Currently, that isn't possible because the apps are separate. By stitching the infrastructure together, Facebook can increase the utility of the social network by keeping users highly engaged within its ecosystem, giving them fewer reasons to turn to rival services. WhatsApp also doesn't store user data in its messages, but Messenger and Instagram do.
A statement on behalf of Facebook said it wanted to "build the best messaging experiences we can; and people want messaging to be fast, simple, reliable and private". Those and other issues have slowed Facebook's growth and damaged its reputation, raising the hackles of lawmakers and regulators around the globe. When Facebook acquired Instagram and WhatsApp, he promised the companies relative autonomy within Facebook. Facebook has about 1.5 billion daily active users, while WhatsApp, the world's most popular messaging app, has 1.5 billion users.
"We did not anticipate all of the risks from connecting so many people", Sandberg said on Wednesday.
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According to today's report, the decision has generated quite a bit of internal conflict within Facebook. We have already seen departure of Instagram co-founder a year ago, which is speculated to be triggered by a response of Facebook trying to take more control over Instagram product.
Messenger allows strangers to contact people without knowing their phone numbers, for example, increasing the risk of stalking and approaches to children.
Facebook is integrating Facebook Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp messaging. That includes tweaking algorithms to make sure the posts at the top of your feed are from the people you communicate with the most and keeping track of your location to flag suspicious activity. This strategic shift will be clearly represented in the operations of Facebook as the fact that WhatsApp and Instagram, both the applications have massive user base.
Zuckerberg hopes to get the integration ready to launch by 2020. This has also led to many employees leaving the company.
If you're anything like us, the move will mean you can dump Facebook Messenger for good and just use WhatsApp instead.