Facebook to integrate WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger
Facebook plans to integrate its messaging services on Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.
While
all three will remain stand-alone apps, at a much deeper level they
will be linked so messages can travel between the different services.
Facebook told the BBC it was at the start of a "long process".
The plan was first reported in the New York Times and is believed to be a personal project of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
Once
complete, the merger would mean that a Facebook user could communicate
directly with someone who only has a WhatsApp account. This is currently
impossible as the applications have no common core.
The work to merge the three elements has already begun, reported the NYT, and is expected to be completed by the end of 2019 or early next year.
Shared data
Mr
Zuckerberg is reportedly pushing the integration plan to make its
trinity of services more useful and increase the amount of time people
spend on them.
By effectively joining all its users into
one massive group Facebook could compete more effectively with Google's
messaging services and Apple's iMessage, suggested Makena Kelly on tech news site The Verge.
"We
want to build the best messaging experiences we can; and people want
messaging to be fast, simple, reliable and private," said Facebook in a
statement.
"We're working on making more of our messaging
products end-to-end encrypted and considering ways to make it easier to
reach friends and family across networks," it added.
The statement said there was a lot of "discussion and debate" about how the system would eventually work.
Linking the three systems marks a significant change at Facebook
as before now it has let Instagram and WhatsApp operate as largely
independent companies.
The NYT claimed that Mr Zuckerberg's
championing of the plan to connect the messaging system had caused
"internal strife". It was part of the reason that the founders of both
Instagram and WhatsApp left last year.
The decision comes as
Facebook faces repeated investigations and criticisms over the way it
has handled and safeguarded user data.
Comprehensively linking
user data at a fundamental level may prompt regulators to take another
look at its data handling practices.
The UK's Information Commissioner has already conducted investigations into how much data is shared between WhatsApp and Facebook.
BBC
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