One of the first social media sites to boom in the world wide web was Facebook. Its popularity amongst the world increased rapidly. In 2012, Facebook bought Instagram for $1 Billion and in 2014 bought WhatsApp for a whopping $19 Billion. Since 2012, Facebook has been bringing impressive updates for Instagram. Such as more fonts in stories, two sections in DM, better UI etc. Now, in 2020, Facebook has merged Messenger and Instagram, bringing in features of WhatsApp to IGDM.
The New Update
On Saturday morning, I received a notification from my Instagram Application. When I opened my Instagram, I saw a pop-up which states “There’s a New Way to Message on Instagram.”
It stated all the new features for example,
- Emoji reactions to the messages changing from heart reactions to messages.
- Colourful Look for the chats
- The WhatsApp feature, swipe to reply, which allows you to reply to a specific message.
- The big update out of all was the introduction of the ability to chat with friends who do not use IGDM but use Messenger.
When I clicked on the blue colour update button at the bottom, I received a fresh look on my Instagram application. Instead of the regular arrow (or paper aeroplane) to show the DMs, there was a messenger symbol. This proved that Instagram DMs and Messenger have now been integrated.
In 2019 itself, Facebook made it clear that they are planning to integrate all its platforms, i.e., Instagram, WhatsApp and of course Facebook. This would allow the users to take advantage of cross-platform. Users of an individual application would now be able to contact directly with users of other platforms.
Doing so, Facebook would be able to compete directly or on a new level with Apple iMessage. As some of you might know, for a long time, Facebook has been trying to use the End-to-End encryption that is present in WhatsApp on its other platforms such as Instagram DM and Messenger. So, this would make it easier for the company to implement end-to-end encryption on all the platforms.
Personally, I really enjoyed the new features. Facebook has surely taken the right step in integrating its platform. Being an everyday user, I really missed the WhatsApp feature to reply to specific messages. This now allows me to do that. Kudos Facebook!
