Social media giant, Facebook excited its teeming users the new month with the announcement of the ‘cross-app group chats’ new feature. The new feature, an upgrade of last year’s announcement by Facebook of synchronization between Facebook messenger chats and Instagram chats, will offer users the leverage to initiate group chats while having the opportunity to add Instagram and Messenger contacts.
The new update also has additional features like polls in Instagram DMS, a build off of an existing Messenger feature.
The Facebook Messenger is also including in the new upgrade, the ‘typing’ status between chats, a feature which notifies a user when the other person is typing a message as applicable in WhatsApp chats.
TechCrunch while analysing further imprints of the new upgrade wrote:
“Plus, as Instagram embraces video content, users will now be able to use Messenger’s existing Watch Together feature to view Instagram posts like Reels and IGTV videos at the same time”.
Creative users will also have ability to customize chats on the Facebook Messenger while the messaging giant is also satisfying astronomy enthusiasts with the new updates.
“Now, there’s a cottage core chat theme, as well as an astrology-themed suite of chat themes, stickers and Instagram AR filters. Because what do the teens love more than cottage core and star charts?” TechCrunch added.
Either by sheer coincidence or an intentional move by Facebook, the new features were released few hours before the tech giant was to testify before the U.S Senate about the mental health issues allegedly caused by Instagram and of course the parent company, Facebook.
Some tech pundits are of the opinion that despite the new additions being a great upgrade to the Mark Zuckerberg owned platforms, the timing suggests it has more to do with politics than entertainment.
Facebook is currently grappling with a law suit filed against it by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) alleging among other paragraphs in the suit that the tech giant’s monopoly has to be expunged and broken down.
Facebook in its defence insist individual products under the Facebook group are dependent on one another, with the company using this line of thought to justify its competitive atmosphere, affirming that the apps that falls under the purview of Facebook cannot be separated.
At its 10th anniversary last month, a Facebook spokesperson had intimated TechCrunch that the company sees the Facebook Messenger as a “connective tissue regardless of the surface.”
Ayoola Faseyi, an Abuja based Journalist with interest in Technology and Politics. He is a versatile writer with articles in many renowned News Journals. He is the Co-Founder of media brand, The Vent Republic.
