Meta has just announced that from 2024, Instagram and Messenger messaging will no longer be linked. Otherwise, it will be impossible to use one application to send a message to the other. If no explanation is given by the company, the question of DMA and the obligation of messaging interoperability arises.
In 2020, Meta (then still called Facebook) made a great promise to users. By integrating interoperability between Messenger and Instagram, the company was designing a future where only one platform would allow messages to be sent between all its applications. Three years later, the return to reality is brutal. In a blog post, only available in the American version of the site, Meta announces throwing in the towel.
In just a few days, it will no longer be possible to send messages between Messenger and Instagram. The two messaging services will therefore be confined to their own ecosystem, the bridge between them no longer existing. If Meta does not provide any explanation for this decision, it specifies that all conversations prior to this date will remain accessible from both applications. However, it will no longer be possible to send new messages or see other users online.
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Meta cuts ties between Messenger and Instagram
Everything suggests that the Meta project encountered too great difficulties to be carried out. In 2021, we learned in particular that end-to-end encryption, so dear to WhatsApp users, would be available in 2023 on Instagram and Messenger. To date, the technology is indeed available within both applications, but at the cost of considerable postponement.
Beyond understanding what pushed Meta to make this decision, there is a real question about the risks run by the company. Let us remember that the DMA, the European legislation for digital spaces, will come into force on March 6, 2024. From this date, Europe will be able to force companies to integrate interoperability between their services.
Why remove the link between Messenger and Instagram at the dawn of this new regulation? It is easy to imagine the arrival of a new platform, allowing messages to be sent between all Meta applications. To date, this prospect still seems very distant. What’s more, note that the DMA considers Messenger and Instagram to belong to different categories of services.
Source: Instagram