Meta has initiated the process of ending the capability for “cross-app chats” between Instagram contacts and Facebook Messenger. This change comes after Meta, previously known as “Facebook,” initially connected Messenger to Instagram in 2020, aiming to enhance the chatting experience across platforms. This integration allowed users to communicate with Facebook friends and Instagram contacts by updating the messaging experience in either app.
Fast forward three years, the company is now reversing this integration. According to a new support page, by “mid-December 2023,” cross-app chatting between Messenger and Instagram will cease. The upcoming changes include:
- Inability to start new conversations or calls with Facebook accounts from Instagram.
- Existing chats with Facebook accounts will become read-only, preventing new messages.
- Facebook accounts won’t see your Activity Status or message read receipts.
- Existing chats with Facebook accounts won’t transfer to your Facebook or Messenger inbox.
The reason behind this change hasn’t been explicitly stated, but it might be linked to Europe’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), which requires major companies to offer messaging platform interoperability. Another Meta product, WhatsApp, is reportedly preparing a “Third-Party Chats” feature to comply with DMA.
Meta might be discontinuing this service-specific cross-app chatting to pave the way for broader DMA-compliant interoperability within Messenger. Alternatively, this move could be part of Meta’s recent trend of scaling back Messenger, seen in the app’s loss of SMS/MMS capabilities on Android and the shutdown of Messenger Lite.
