Facebook Messenger has released a bunch of products this month many notably, including cross-app group chats. In 2020, Facebook launched cross-app messaging in Messenger and Instagram, and now, people could be able to start group chats between Instagram also Messenger contacts.
Other additions in this month include polls in Instagram DMs, creating off the poll feature which currently is in Messenger. Messenger is further adding a group typewriting feature to group DMs — regardless of which app you’re talking at — to help people view if their friends are typing at that same time. Also, while Instagram includes video content, people could instantly be able to use Messenger’s feature of Watch Together to see Instagram posts as Reels plus IGTV videos in that time.
Those updates occur just hours before the company is set to testify before the Senate regarding the mental health harms of Instagram also Facebook. However, those additions have also to do with a separate government probe within Facebook’s operations. Facebook is facing a lawsuit from the Federal Trade Commission, claiming that Facebook is a monopoly and needs to be broken up. Still, as unique products under the Facebook umbrella rely on each other further and further, it could enable the company to claim that those apps are reliant on one another and could not be separated. Last month, as Facebook Messenger celebrated its 10th anniversary, a Facebook spokesperson told TechCrunch that Facebook is thinking of Messenger as a “connective tissue regardless of the surface.”
Apart from updates that may integrate Facebook and Instagram, Messenger launched in some fun ones to those of us that love customization. Now, there’s a cottage care chat theme, as well as an astrology-themed suite of chat themes, stickers, and Instagram AR filters.