Facebook Inc to integrate Messenger, Whatsapp and Instagram!

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook Chief Executive Officer, plans to unify the three most popular messaging apps Messenger, Whatsapp and Instagram on technical ground. The union will let the organisation evolve as the Superpower in the Social Media World and exert control over apps, they had planned to keep standalone.

As per the report published, Facebook-owned Messenger, Whatsapp and Instagram will operate as individual apps, but the underlying infrastructure will be merged.

Facebook Inc estimates a total of 2.6 billion users who use Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram or Messenger month on month. The technical merger will open channels for shared data amongst the apps and would aid Facebook to track users' activity on all the apps and open avenues for effective target based ads on otherwise ad-free platform Whatsapp. The shared data means users' activity on one platform will be available on another platform also.

Targeted to finish the task by 2020, the platform will incorporate end-to-end encryption for all the apps involved keeping messages protected between the people in the conversation.

At the time when the business is battered by the data and privacy scandal, the proposition of single technical base shows Facebook wants to assert it's control over the individually operating apps and strengthen its grip on its users. Though the integration raises questions on the privacy of shared data, on how the data will be handled and unresting the users who want to keep their accounts separate on these platforms.

The stitch will keep users engaged within the Facebook ecosystem, increasing advertising business and generating new revenue opportunities. It will also reduce the options of users consuming other messaging apps or rival social networks.

Hindside knitting the apps will allow people to communicate across the platforms with ease, redefining how billions of people will engage with the apps. This looks like great a step for Facebook, but the question doing rounds is that will this be a flag off for the downfall of this giant, considering that users' data security will be on high risk and targeted ads might offend the huge number of Whatsapp users? Or Facebook loyalists/unaware users will ignore and continue using it like always giving them the muscle with which the platform wants to rule over the Internet?