Facebook confirms universal chat function for Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp

Facebook is working on a feature that will make it possible to chat among each other via the company’s three messaging platforms: Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp. A Facebook spokesperson confirmed at the F8 developer conference that that functionality is coming.

There have long been rumors that Facebook is working on a universal structure for Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram. This should, for example, make it possible to send an encrypted message from Facebook to a WhatsApp user or vice versa. At the F8 developer conference in San Jose, Asha Sharma, head of consumer products for Facebook Messenger, first confirmed the arrival of “interoperability” between the apps.

Speaking to Engadget, Sharma said the feature, which she calls “inter-app messaging,” will work in the same way as making a phone call. “You don’t need to know which operator the other person is with, you can just call him or her. The same goes for Facebook’s messaging services: the message will soon arrive, regardless of which app the other person uses,” says Sharma.

The interoperability is expected to be part of Facebook Project LightSpeed. That’s a new version of the Messenger app for smartphones that the company is currently working on. Perhaps the functionality is also in the desktop version of Messenger for Windows and macOS, which Facebook announced Tuesday. However, nothing is known about the release dates of these applications, and any updates from Instagram and WhatsApp.

The new desktop version of Messenger, which Facebook just announced