A little more than a year ago, Facebook had started merging its three apps- WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram into 1 mega social media platform. However, the project didn’t make any headlines after that.
Now according to the WABetaInfo report states that there have been first indications of the integration between WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger have shown up in the new code of the Messenger, as uncovered by reverse engineer @Alex193a.
The buried code inside Facebook Messenger signals that it is preparing to accept messages from WhatsApp users.
Read on to find out more…
WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger to Merge Into One Messaging App!
The below mentioned entries have shown up in a local database created by Facebook Messenger.
These entries will likely pull the elements from WhatsApp in accepting incoming messages so that the cross-app messaging ability will not compromise privacy and security of its users.
WABetaInfo explained, “following the references in this image, Facebook can understand if a WhatsApp contact is blocked, sounds of push notifications, the details of a chat (that includes particular information like the phone number of the contact, a message counter, if the chat is archived…) but not its content, members of a specific group and profile pictures of the contact.”
Instagram in its ‘Settings’ section too showed a sub-heading ‘Get Messenger for Instagram’. This indicates that Facebook was also prompting Instagram users to use Facebook Messenger.
Facebook is vouching to create 1 mega-messaging app with different skins instead of having 3 different messaging apps- Facebook Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp.
The Obstacles Facebook Might Face!
WhatsApp uses end-to-end encryption for its messages whereas Facebook Messenger is not encrypted by default. Hence, a message running between these two, would have to run within Messenger’s ‘secret’ functionality, expand the use of encryption, or step outside WhatsApp’s end-to-end Signal protocol encryption. Although, Facebook had promised to extend encryption, so it will adapt one of the above two.
For now, the database under development will likely be held locally to the user. However, after sometime will it be offloaded to a server somewhere? And where would that be? And as we are talking about Facebook here, will it be used as a marketing data source. WABetaInfo points out, “if you don’t trust Facebook and you’ve concerns, this option might be useful for you.”
For WhatsApp users worried about their security, none of the updates far suggest any weakening of this.
If Facebook is successful in merging its messaging platforms, it’s going to give a tough challenge to its rivals, Google and Apple!
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