Zuckerberg decided last year to make it possible for users of Facebook’s properties – Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger – to chat with one another no matter which service they’re using. The move toward “interoperability”, as he calls it, has been described as a massive technical undertaking and has also caused tensions within the company. — AFP
Facebook Inc is taking the first major step in a plan to merge its systems and let users exchange messages among all its different mobile apps – and is chipping away at the independence of Instagram’s direct-messaging product in the process.
Engineers are working to rebuild Instagram’s chat feature using Facebook Messenger’s technology, according to people familiar with the matter. That will make it possible for Instagram users to communicate with those using Messenger, something they can’t do now. To make that technically easier, Instagram’s direct-messaging staff now reports to the Facebook Messenger team, said the people. The look of the photo-sharing app’s messaging product, called Instagram Direct, won’t change much, but the underlying technology powering the service will, the people said.
