Meta is planning to kill Instagram and Messenger cross-app chatting

In 2020, Meta, which at the time was called Facebook, announced it was going to merge direct-messaging between Instagram and Messenger, in a bid to unify the instant messaging experience. Now, three years later, the company is moving to disconnect it.

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The severing of chatting across Instagram and Messenger comes from a new support page update that states cross-app chatting between the two aforementioned apps will no longer be available as of "mid-December 2023".

The support page details what the end of support (EOS) means for users that were taking advantage of the feature; users won't be able to start new conversations or calls with Facebook accounts from Instagram, existing chats will become read-only, Facebook accounts won't be able to view your Activity Status or "seen" in messages, and any existing chats with Facebook accounts will move to your inbox on Facebook or Messenger.

• You won't be able to start new conversations or calls with Facebook accounts from Instagram.
• Any existing chats on Instagram that you've had with Facebook accounts will become read-only, even if these Facebook accounts are removed from the chat. This means that you and others with Instagram accounts can't send new messages in these chats.
• Facebook accounts won't be able to view your Activity Status or whether you've seen a message.
• Any existing chats you've had with Facebook accounts won't move to your inbox on Facebook or Messenger.

Meta didn't give a specific reason as to why the feature was being removed, but reports indicate that it may be related to Europe's Digital Markets Act (DMA) that went into force earlier this year.