Facebook is one of the most popular applications out there. Its official app for Android has been downloaded over 1 billion times from the Google Play Store. This is one of the handful of the apps that has crossed the 1 billion mark.
Besides Facebook, some of the other popular apps are Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp. These are some of the most downloaded and used applications out there and they are all owned by Facebook. The company has dominated the social media space but it is far from done.
It has been revealed that Facebook has plans to integrate the three services (Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram) under a single underlying messaging platform or protocol. This revelation is based on sources close to Facebook who say the social networking site plans to integrate Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram in the future. With this integration, users will be able to communicate across the three services seamlessly. What this means is, an Instagram user will be able to chat with WhatsApp and Messenger users in the same app. This will also be the case with the other two apps.
Apps to Remain Independent but there are Doubts
A report by the New York Times indicates that the project will be completed by the end of this year. The three apps will remain independent but will have a unified backend that will support end-to-end encryption. With encryption, all three platforms should theoretically be more secure but with the issues Facebook has been facing the last year or so, this integration makes people uncomfortable as to what the company’s intentions are and if their private conversations will be safe.
Facebook has been accused of misusing data provided by users before and in some cases it has been accused of not doing enough to protect the data from third parties as is with the case with Cambridge Analytica. With encryption, Facebook will be able to prevent third parties from accessing the private messages of its users but the question is, what is Facebook planning to do with this data.
Also Read: Facebook Messenger Lite Has Been Downloaded Over 100 Million Times From the Play Store