WhatsApp Under Meta
WhatsApp is owned by Meta but has maintained its own identity over the years. But recent changes have made it like Instagram and Messenger in terms of integration and one such addition was Communities, short video messages, status updates and emoji reactions which are similar to Instagram. Now another trend to follow from WhatsApp is to post a status on both Instagram and Facebook from WhatsApp itself.
Status Sharing Tools
WhatsApp’s status creation tools are still very basic compared to Instagram’s advanced Story features. Users have no option to remix statuses, add filters or include background music in videos. Although Meta started working on these features in 2023, it’s been slow. So users are forced to take screenshots or download their content and manually upload to other platforms.
To solve this, Meta has come up with a simple solution: WhatsApp is now part of the Accounts Center. This central hub allows you to manage all your Meta app accounts. With this feature, you can toggle an option in WhatsApp’s settings to share your status updates to Instagram or Facebook. No more manual downloads and uploads, just a seamless share.
Easier Login and User Management
Beyond cross posting, the Accounts Center integration has more benefits. For example, you can have a faster login experience through Single Sign-On (SSO) when setting up WhatsApp on a new device.
Important to note that this is entirely optional. You need to manually link your WhatsApp account to the Accounts Center and your phone number based WhatsApp account will remain separate from other Meta profiles. This is to address privacy concerns and to maintain user trust.
Pros and Cons
While it will be convenient, how worth it is, we will see. Some users-like those with friends on different platforms-might want to share their WhatsApp status on Instagram or Facebook. Others might find the limited creative tools in WhatsApp as a drawback. In fairness, being able to share content from Instagram or Facebook to WhatsApp would be a better scenario.
Future and Rollout
Meta has mentioned more cross platform features in the works but didn’t give a specific date for the update. Rollout will be later this year as they work out the details on how the services will be connected.
This is one step closer to a unified Meta. Convenience is good but adoption is up to user preference and WhatsApp’s features.
