Facebook will now allow you to do group chats on Instagram and Messenger

Facebook will now allow you to start cross-app group chats between Messenger and Instagram, the company said Thursday. The update is a big step forward in Facebook’s ambitions to make its apps work better with each other. In order to use cross-app communications, you’ll need to sign up, and Facebook says that “over 70% of eligible people on Instagram have updated the new Messenger experience.”

The company is bringing other new features to messaging applications in addition to cross-app group messaging. The polls will be available in group DMs on Instagram and in cross-app chats so you can, for example, vote on where to have lunch. Facebook has added group typing indicators to Messenger, so you can see when multiple people are composing a message. (It’s not clear from the Facebook blog if group input metrics are coming to Instagram as well, but I asked the company to clarify that.) And you can now use the Look Together feature of Facebook to watch videos from your Instagram feed with your friends.

Image: Facebook

Facebook is also adding new chat themes to Messenger, including a “cottagecore” theme, inspired by J Balvin’s latest album, and an astrology theme.