Mark Zuckerberg announces, with a very long post, the intention to create a single messaging platform. What changes for users
The rumors about a possible merger (at the infrastructure level, for the moment) between WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Instagram had been chasing each other for weeks now and now comes the confirmation. With a post more than 3,000 words long (enough to fill two pages of newspaper, just to understand) Mark Zuckerberg announces the creation of a single messaging platform based on encryption and protection of user data.
After the various privacy scandals that have affected Facebook for the past two years (it all started with Cambridge Analytica, but then came many others), the father of Facebook - and owner of WhatsApp and Instagram - decides that it's time to put privacy at the center of its development project. And he does so by announcing his intention to create a single messaging platform shared between the various services now owned by him. The goal is also to create new business opportunities: Zuckerberg certainly thinks of e-commerce, but also payments between users (so much so that a cryptocurrency to be used on WhatsApp and Facebook is being developed).
The future is privacy
In his very long speech, Mark Zuckerberg outlines what will be the lines of development of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram. And, probably, of the entire social networking and messaging app industry. "I believe that the future of communication is moving towards services based on encryption and protecting the privacy of those who use them - reads Zuckerberg's post. People need to be assured that what they say and the information they exchange remains private and cannot be traced online forever." That doesn't mean, the Facebook dad explains again, that there is no more room for public social networks: platforms like Facebook will continue to exist, but users will prefer to exchange important messages on private platforms.
WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram Direct: what future
For this reason, the developers of Instagram's Messenger are working to make the two platforms increasingly similar to WhatsApp. The messaging app par excellence, with a higher number of unique monthly users than Facebook, is taken as an example: thanks to its end-to-end encryption algorithms and other security features, it guarantees users a high level of privacy and data protection.
In the coming months, therefore, the engineers of the Facebook group will work on the integration of the platform, so as to create a single infrastructure for WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram Direct. The ultimate goal is, however, another: the complete integration between the three platforms, so that users of either service will be able to exchange messages with each other without any limits.