Facebook has come up with another big update. The social media giant has enabled a cross-app messaging feature for Instagram and Messenger and is now live for its users. The update brings a host of Messenger inspired features to Instagram for its Android and iOS users.
People will be able to use the new cross-platform messaging feature post-updating either of the apps. The Instagram FAM will need to update the app to version 164.0.0123 for Android and version 165.0 for iOS. The Messenger app also needs to be updated to version 287.0.022.120 and 287.1 for Android and iOS, respectively.
The update enables users to message on Instagram from Facebook itself, and vice versa. The users get the full liberty to receive messages in the main chats, requests or receive them at all. After enabling the cross-platform messaging feature, accounts your message across Facebook and Instagram will be able to see your active status. The DM icon in the Instagram app at the top right corner will get changed to the Messenger icon.
The update adds features of Facebook Messenger such as colorful chats, swiping to reply to individual messages, selfie stickers, disappearing messages, reactions with custom emojis, and easily share videos with more people. Mark Zuckerberg first announced his vision for a cross-app feature last year. The organization aims to integrate WhatsApp and provide extensive end-to-end encryption across all three platforms by 2020. There are some specific privacy concerns regarding the update.
So, here’s how to enable the cross-platform messaging feature and enable privacy settings.
For Instagram:
- Go to more options on the right-hand-side and select ‘Settings.’
- Click on the ‘Privacy’ option.
- Choose the ‘Messages’ option, and make adjustments. You can either receive chats directly, if you want to get messages requests, or if you don’t like to receive requests at all.
You can select the given categories:
- Facebook friends or connected people on Messenger
- People with phone number
- Others on Facebook
For Messenger:
- Open the app
- Go to privacy under preferences.
- Select message delivery
- Under potential connections from the listed options
- Select chats under the delivery requests option.
On Messenger, users get the option to sync their profile photo and name. The information will appear on both Facebook and Instagram apps. The Instagram username will not change. Privacy can be an issue and is likely to cumulatively figure in antitrust deliberations over Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp, which are the subject of several probes. However, the antitrust experts have raised concerns that weaving services together can make it more difficult for Instagram and Messenger in the future, as both the services are relying on the same back-end infrastructure.
