Facebook has started to roll out a series of new features to enhance the user experience on Messenger and Instagram Direct.
The biggest update comes in the form of cross-platform group chats. This is the latest step in Facebook’s overall messaging integration plan, which should make it easier for individuals to speak to their friends without constantly changing services.
Users can now join and engage in group chats using either their Messenger or Instagram accounts.
Facebook first started to merge Messenger and Instagram in August 2020. The aim is to also include WhatsApp in the network, but the other two services will need to be fully encrypted to the same level.
Other new features in this latest round of updates includes group typing notifications, new chat themes and ‘Watch Together’ for Instagram.
Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp went down for hours on Monday, causing social media natives to flock to other platforms. Twitter was unable to cope with the increased traffic and also crashed for a short period.
Dating app Inner Circle saw its number of online users grow sixfold and sent messages also increase by 145%.
CEO and Founder David Vermeulen said in a statement: “As we already saw during the pandemic, in these moments of uncertainty impacting our social lives, people turn to dating apps to connect.”
Read more here.