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Facebook overhauls Instagram messaging, enabling cross-app chats with Messenger

The move enables users of each service to find, message and hold video calls with contacts on the other without needing to download both apps.

It also introduces features like custom emojis and themes that have been mainstays on Messenger but were not previously available in Instagrams minimalist messaging product, along with new features like disappearing messages.

As on Messenger, Instagram users - who have not been able to forward messages - will be able to do so to a maximum of five people at a time.

The move is likely to figure in antitrust deliberations over Facebooks acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, which are the subject of several probes.

Antitrust experts have raised concerns that weaving the services together could make it more difficult for regulators to break up the company.

Chudnovsky said no new categories of user data would be swapped between Instagram and Messenger beyond what was already shared, as both messaging services have relied on the same back-end infrastructure for years.

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Author: Katie Paul

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