Meta has announced plans to terminate its cross-platform messaging service, which allowed users to communicate between Instagram and Facebook. This decision comes three years after the feature’s launch, and users will now be restricted to messaging individuals solely within the platform they are using. The reason behind this change has not been disclosed by the company, but it coincides with the anticipated implementation of default end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for Messenger by the end of this year.
According to a recently updated support page from Instagram, the capability for cross-app communication will be disabled by mid-December. Once this feature is switched off, any ongoing conversations will revert to read-only status, enabling users to view their chat history but not engage in further discussions.
Once Meta disables cross-platform chat functionality, users will no longer be able to initiate conversations with Facebook Messenger users from their Instagram accounts, nor the other way around. Existing chats will not transfer automatically between platforms.
Additionally, users on Facebook who previously could see each other’s Activity Status—indicating when someone was online or viewed their messages—will lose access to these features. To maintain communication with friends on both platforms, users will need to initiate new chats on the same app.
While Meta has not elaborated on the motivations behind this discontinuation—originally introduced in 2020—it is notable that the announcement comes at a pivotal time for Messenger, with the forthcoming launch of E2EE chats intended to safeguard user privacy.
In August, Meta disclosed that it was “on track to launch default E2EE for one-to-one friends and family chats on Messenger by the end of the year.” This upgrade aims to ensure that only the sender and recipient can access their conversations, with the exception of reported chats. Notably, end-to-end encryption is already a feature available on WhatsApp.
