Facebook is merging Instagram, Messenger: Report

In the past two years, Facebook has re-branded Instagram and WhatsApp to increase users’ awareness that the apps are owned by Facebook.

Instagram, the photo-sharing app which Facebook acquired for $715 million in 2012. (REUTERS)

Facebook has been planning to merge all its services, which includes Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp, for quite some time. Now, the company has taken the first step towards its aim. A new report says that Facebook has started offering its chat app, Messenger, within Instagram.

As per a report by The Verge, Facebook has started showing pop-ups to Instagram users on Android and on iOS informing them that they could use Messenger from the photo-sharing app. Once updated, the Instagram app embeds Messenger functionality and adds more emojis and features such as swipe-to-reply and the ability to “chat with friends who use Facebook.” It also enables users to set colourful look to their chats.

That said, while the company has started showing the update, Instagram users cannot use the functionality just yet, the report noted.

This could be the latest step in Facebook's efforts to bring individual products and apps closer together. In the past two years, it re-branded Instagram and WhatsApp to increase users' awareness that the apps are owned by Facebook, and Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg has announced plans to integrate all the company's messaging services.

Instagram, the photo-sharing app which Facebook acquired for $715 million in 2012, has more than 1 billion users and generated more than a quarter of the social-media company's revenue last year. The team in charge of direct messaging on Instagram reports to the Facebook Messenger team and the company is changing Instagram's branding to “Instagram from Facebook.”

(With Bloomberg Inputs)