In the beginning, WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook were three separate apps from three separate companies that had little to do with each other. In 2019, though, these services are all owned by Facebook, and though operated somewhat independently, there are reports that’s about to change.
According to a report in the New York Times, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants to see some kind of unification across the three products, and in particular, in their messaging services.
While the apps will likely continue to exist as standalone apps (which don’t require installing the others), Facebook’s move is to unify the underlying infrastructure to bring all three up to a higher standard. One example given is bringing end-to-end encryption to messaging services. The unification of infrastructure would also allow – if the company desired – a merger of elements of each service.
Facebook is reportedly aiming to merge some of the infrastructure required by the end of the year, but the company remains coy on what it’s actually doing. The company gave this statement on the report:
“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.”
This can’t be good news . .