Facebook to merge Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram - Dazed

As if Facebook hadn’t gone downhill enough already, the tech monolith has announced plans to integrate its messaging services into one big messaging operation.

That’s right, Messenger, Instagram and Whatsapp will become one through a “long process” of integration, Facebook said in a statement to the BBC. Three will become one as early as the end of 2019, with work on merging the three elements already in progress.

Although users would still use the servies separately, according to Facebook, the move intends to help the company better tailor ads and prevent a regulatory breakup of the three services.

“People want messaging to be fast, simple, reliable and private,” the company, which runs all three apps, said in a statement. “We’re working on making more of our messaging products end-to-end encrypted and considering ways to make it easier to reach friends and family across networks.”

As you can probably tell, few of the platform's 2 billion users asked for the change, with many calling the decision “terrible”, “horrible” and another sign of a time to leave the social network.

K well I guess I'm done with Whatsapp then
— dooppy Ⓥ (@Dooppy) January 25, 2019

This isn’t the first time Facebook has effectively trolled users over the past weeks and months. The social media platform has been secretly working on a bad meme app for teens, and is making the app nearly impossible to delete on some phones.

People aren’t putting up with it either. More people than ever are taking “Facebook breaks” and deleting the app from their phones – or trying to.

If the tech monolith’s latest move is indeed the final straw, we’re off to use Signal, the encrypted messaging service and the OG “disappearing messages” app. Or, we might just get a “dumbphone” and go off-grid altogether. Bye!

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