Zuckerberg says merging WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger chats will improve security and create an experience similar to iMessage



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Last week, a report said that Facebook was planning to combine Messenger messaging, WhatsApp and Instagram on a single, unified platform. When calling Facebook's Q4 2018 results tonight, Mark Zuckerberg confirmed that the company is currently considering taking this into account, but said it would not happen this year.

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Last week's report explained that merging Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp threads would allow users to easily communicate across platforms. In addition, the change would expand the availability of end-to-end encryption, which Zuckerberg addressed in today's call.

Addressing investors today, Zuckerberg said the combination of Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram was still in the early stages of planning. As noted by The edge, he said that "whatever the term, we end up doing it" would probably not be posted until 2020 or later.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the project – "whatever the duration of this operation" – would probably not be presented until 2020 and beyond.

"The integration we think of brings us very early into this thinking," Zuckerberg said during the company's fourth quarter earnings call. "We still have a lot to understand."

As for the reasons why Facebook wants to combine the three platforms, Zuckerberg explained that one of the benefits is the end-to-end extended encryption. For example, this would allow a Messenger user to send an end-to-end encrypted message to a WhatsApp user, or an Instagram user, to send an encrypted message to a WhatsApp user.

"I think that's the direction in which we should go with more things in the future," Zuckerberg said of expanding the availability of end-to-end messaging.

Zuckerberg also pointed out that a combined messaging platform would fill some gaps in communication. For example, he said that someone could use Marketplace on Facebook, but then had to use WhatsApp for messaging, which he thinks the unification will solve.

Finally, he explained that the merge would create a "layer similar to iMessage for SMS".

He also pointed out the possibility that Messenger – and the WhatsApp / Instagram combined system – could serve as an iMessage-like layer for SMS with more features and security.

In the end, however, it is clear that the combination of Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp messaging is very far apart. Therefore, for better or for worse, you will have to wait a moment to try it.


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