Facebook made news when it purchased Instagram and WhatsApp years ago, dropping $1 billion on the former and nearly $20 billion on the latter. Despite Facebook spending that much on the popular apps, though, not everyone knows that Instagram and WhatsApp are owned by Facebook. That'll soon change.
Facebook will soon rebrand Instagram and WhatsApp to make it clear that both apps are owned by FB. Instagram will become "Instagram from Facebook" and WhatsApp will become "WhatsApp from Facebook".
News of the rebranding was first reported by The Information who then got confirmation of the change from a Facebook spokesperson. "We want to be clearer about the products and services that are part of Facebook," the spokesperson explained.
When the new "from Facebook" branding rolls out, you'll see it on the Instagram and WhatsApp pages in the Play Store and App Store, and it'll also be visible when you log in to the apps.
Facebook has been caught up a fair share of privacy scandals recently, but Instagram and WhatsApp haven't really been affected, likely at least in part because some people don't know the apps are owned by Facebook. Today's report says that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is frustrated that Facebook doesn't get more credit for the growth that Instagram and WhatsApp have enjoyed. This rebranding will help make more people aware that Instagram and WhatsApp are owned by Facebook, but it'll be interesting to see if that turns people off of those services or if they're so popular that the users see the "Instagram from Facebook" and "WhatsApp from Facebook" branding and don't care.
