Meta is pulling the plug on Messenger chats on Instagram

Meta is disconnecting Facebook chats on Instagram, and vice-versa.

The optional cross-app feature, announced in 2019, merged the company’s messaging platforms (Messenger and Instagram, with WhatsApp left as its own platform). But a new support page on Instagram, spotted by 9to5Google, reveals that the chat integration will be removed by mid-December.

After the feature is discontinued, users will no longer be able to start new conversations or calls with Facebook accounts via Instagram. Other changes were announced by Meta, including:

• All existing chats that a user has had with Facebook accounts will become read-only. No new messages can be sent.

• Facebook accounts won’t be able to view a user’s Activity Status or whether a message has been read.

• Any existing chats a user has had with Facebook accounts will not move to their inbox on Facebook or Messenger.

No reason for these changes were given, but some are speculating that they may be a product of Europe’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). In September of this year, the European Commission accused six tech giants of “gatekeeping”, and unsurprisingly, Meta was amongst them.

“More choice for consumers, fewer obstacles for smaller competitors,” said Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for Internal Market in a statement in September. “The DMA will open the gates to the internet.”