Meta Ceases Cross-Platform Messaging Exchange Between Instagram and Facebook
Meta has announced the cessation of cross-platform messaging exchange between its two flagship social media platforms, Instagram and Facebook, starting mid-December. The technological giant, however, has not disclosed the reasons behind this decision, as reported by Fortune India.
According to the latest information on Instagram's support page, users will no longer be able to initiate new chats, audio, or video calls directly from Instagram with Facebook accounts.
"To continue chatting with Facebook accounts, Instagram users can start a new chat on Messenger or Facebook using their Facebook account," the announcement states.
Existing chats will remain accessible to users but only for reading—continuing conversations in them will not be possible. Additionally, all existing chats that Instagram users had with Facebook accounts will not be transferred to the Facebook Messenger.
These changes come nearly three years after Meta (formerly known as Facebook) introduced Messenger support for Instagram in 2020. At that time, Meta emphasized providing users with access to the best messaging experience, regardless of the application they use.
Experts speculate that this decision may be related to the adoption of the new Digital Markets Act (DMA) in the European Union, aimed at preventing platform owners from acquiring a monopoly. The law includes requirements for large companies to facilitate interaction between messaging platforms upon competitors' request. Another popular Meta-owned messenger, WhatsApp, is already preparing to implement the "Third-Party Chats" feature to comply with DMA requirements.
It is entirely possible that Meta is disabling this specific cross-platform chat feature to better prepare for broader, DMA-compliant interaction in Messenger. Moreover, this may be another instance of Meta reducing Messenger's functionality to avoid accusations of monopolization: the app recently lost the ability to send SMS/MMS on Android, and a trimmed-down version of the product — Messenger Lite — was also discontinued.