Facebook today officially confirmed that it's unifying the Messenger and Instagram chat experiences, a move that was teased last month.
With this update to Instagram, messages and calls from Facebook Messenger will now reach you in Instagram. This will alow people in Messenger to chat and video call with you in Instagram and vice versa without you needing to download a new app.
When you get this update to Instagram messaging, you'll receive a pop-up about it in your Instagram app. You can decide to not update to the unified messaging experience if you don't want to.
Facebook says that it's also bringing several Messenger features to Instagram messaging. Those include personalized chat colors, custom emoji reactions, message forwarding, direct replies, and animated message effects. There's a new Vanish Mode, too, that'll make you messages disappear after they're read or after you close the chat.
You'll also be able to control who can message you directly and who can not message you at all. This means you can control where you receive your messages, whether that's in your chats, in your message requests, or not at all.
This unified messaging experience is rolling out globally, starting with select countries around the world.
