Meta axes cross messaging between Instagram and Facebook Messenger

Meta is removing the option to hold "cross-app chats" with your Instagram connections via Facebook Messenger and vice versa.

Back in 2020, Meta - then known as "Facebook" - stated that it was linking its Messenger experience to Instagram, allowing the latter platform to boost its talking experience while also assuring its users had "access to the best messaging experience, no matter which app you use." You may keep in touch with your Facebook friends and Instagram connections from either app, but you must select to "update" the messaging experience.

Three years later, it appears that the corporation is changing its mind about the integration. According to a new support page, cross-app communication between Messenger and Instagram will end "mid-December 2023." The firm explains what will happen if the feature is turned off:

• You won’t be able to start new conversations or calls with Facebook accounts from Instagram.
• Any existing chats that you’ve had with Facebook accounts will become read-only. This means that you and others can’t send new messages in these chats.
• Facebook accounts won’t be able to view your Activity Status or whether you’ve seen a message.
• Any existing chats you’ve had with Facebook accounts won’t move to your inbox on Facebook or Messenger.

There is no explanation for the move, although it might be tied to Europe's Digital Markets Act (DMA), which contains regulations for major corporations to provide interoperability between messaging systems, among other things. Another of Meta's products, WhatsApp, has already been discovered to be working on a "Third-Party Chats" feature that will aid in compliance with the DMA.

It's probable that Meta is deactivating this service-specific cross-app talking capability in order to better prepare Messenger for wider, DMA-compliant interoperability. Alternatively, this might be another example of Meta limiting Messenger's capabilities, with the app recently losing SMS/MMS features on Android and Meta closing down Messenger Lite.