The update is a significant step toward a vision laid out by Mark Zuckerberg last year of knitting together the messaging systems on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, which between them have over 2.6 billion users.
Facebook engineers told WIRED earlier this year that making encryption the default on Messenger will take yearsand so, by extension, will a full integration of all three apps.
Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, confirmed that full end-to-end encryption remains on the companys map, but did not say when it will get there. Facebook Messenger also has a disappearing messages option, called Secret conversations, but that feature allows individual messages to be encrypted.
There are at least a few new features designed to keep Instagram and Facebook friends separate: You can choose not to receive messages from people on Facebook, for example, and can choose not to link the accounts at all. Nor does the update combine inboxesmessages on Instagram will remain in the Instagram app, while messages on the stand-alone Messenger app will stay there.
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