Facebook to Merge Messenger With Instagram Direct Message

We all know that Facebook Messenger and Instagram Direct Message (DM) are two ideal platforms to send and receive messages. How about accessing both in the same place? That’s what the latest Facebook update is all about.

Facebook has recently merged its messenger with Instagram Direct Message, enabling users an easy way to access both the platforms from the same place. With these integrated chat systems, users can benefit from the best messaging experiences.

This update is witnessed by Instagram users – on both iOS and Android devices — through a pop-up while opening the Instagram app. The pop-up reads “There’s a New Way to Message on Instagram” and also highlights some benefits of merging the two chat platforms. They are:

1. New colorful look for your chats

2. React with any emoji

3. Swipe to reply to messages

4. Chat with friends who use Facebook

As this update offers the ability to send messages across platforms – Messenger users can communicate with Instagram users without leaving their platform of choice. But before you choose to update, you have to know that the new changes will modify the entire look and feel of your Instagram DM inbox. For instance, the top-right icon in the Instagram DM will be replaced with the Messenger logo, making it look more like Facebook Messenger.

Is this Update Mandatory?

Not at all, this update is completely optional.

Those who prefer to keep things the same as before and those who enjoy their Instagram DM’s classic design can keep the two chat systems separate by selecting the “Not Now” option, which appears at the very bottom of the pop-up. At the same time, if a user wants to experience the new integrated chat systems can go ahead and select the “Update” option.

Once the update is done, the regular Instagram DM icon in the top right of the app is replaced by the Facebook Messenger logo. Also, the chats on Instagram are more colorful than before, with the sender’s messages shifting between blue and purple as you scroll.

Note: The users that haven’t updated will still be able to get message requests on Instagram from FB accounts. It appears to be the only way to message Facebook users from Instagram, which might change in the future.

As of now, the update has rolled out in different languages globally – English, Korean, and Spanish.

Who is Benefited With This Update?

Instagram users who are not active on Facebook can benefit the most from this update. Those users can communicate through Messenger with their family and friends.

Even though a Facebook user has to initiate the chat, this update gives non-Facebook users a way to keep in touch with their friends and family without having to leave their platform of choice.

This latest update conforms to Facebook’s longstanding intention to integrate Messenger on Instagram. Way back in 2019, Facebook gave the world a heads-up about this change, saying that they were working on merging its hugely popular messaging products – Instagram and WhatsApp – that too with end-to-end encryption, in order to build the best messaging experiences as people want messaging to be fast, simple, reliable and private.

The dominant player in the messaging space, Facebook acquired Instagram for $1 billion in 2012, and bought WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014.

Though Instagram hasn’t officially announced any detailed rollout plans yet, in a statement to The Verge, a Facebook spokesperson confirmed it was testing the experience, and a small set of people were able to update this new test experience for Instagram messaging.

Let’s expect to see this change available to more users in the near future. If this update goes very well with the users, then Facebook might combine the two services with WhatsApp too.