A new report claims that Facebook is working to integrate Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp.
About two years ago, Facebook announced its plan of integrating WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger. During the announcement, Facebook said that it isn’t unifying its services, but rather merging the underlying architecture of the messaging services. This was done so that users on all the platforms can contact each other, even if one of them isn’t on the other one.
Last year, we saw the first step towards this, after the company announced cross-messaging capabilities between Instagram and Messenger. Now, WABetaInfo has reported that the company is working to integrate WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.
#Messenger keeps working to support #WhatsApp chats 👀
⚠️ I forced this thread to be recognized as a WhatsApp conversation just to show how it will look when the feature is available, I haven't actually sent a message between the two services! pic.twitter.com/qtJuzO7Dgu
— Alessandro Paluzzi (@alex193a) April 16, 2021
Italian leaker Alessandro Paluzzi, who earlier reported that Instagram is working on TikTok-style vertical stories, has found a WhatsApp chat inside the Facebook Messenger. Although it is not possible to integrate both services yet, Paluzzi was able to ‘force’ a WhatsApp chat into Facebook Messenger to show how the feature would look like.
He says that the interoperability will be ‘totally optional’ as it already is with Facebook Messenger and Instagram. You’ll continue to use both the services as you normally would if you don’t accept the interoperability.
WABetaInfo says that many features that have been implemented on Messenger, like message reactions, might come to WhatsApp in the future as a part of this update.
WhatsApp, on the other hand, is testing some minor design changes to its iOS app. The report says that the TestFlight beta of WhatsApp is testing a redesigned mention badge in the chat. Currently, WhatsApp only shows the number of unread chats and shows that you have been mentioned only when you open the chat.
The new mention badge is still under testing and might come to the stable version in a future update.
Even though the reports claim that the WhatsApp chats will remain private, would you opt-in for integrating your Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp? Let us know in the comments section below!
[Via WABetaInfo]
