Facebook Tests Posting of Instagram Stories as WhatsApp Statuses

HIGHLIGHTS

  • The feature has been confirmed to be in testing
  • A Story posted as a WhatsApp Status will be encrypted
  • Facebook didn’t confirm if it would roll out the feature globally

Facebook is running a small test to let users post their Instagram Stories directly to WhatsApp Status.

The new feature will let users post decorated photos, videos, and GIF images from Instagram on WhatsApp, which will disappear after 24 hours.

“An Instagram Story posted as a WhatsApp Status also becomes encrypted like the rest of WhatsApp,” TechCrunch reported on Wednesday. The feature is based on publicly available code that WhatsApp makes available for third-party apps.

instagram techcrunch Instagram

Photo Credit: Tecnoblog

“Users get an option to tap to share to WhatsApp from the Instagram sharing screen, but they still have to press Send in WhatsApp to post the story,” the report reads. The feature was first spotted by Brazilian site Tecnoblog.

“We are always testing ways to improve the experience on Instagram and make it easier to share any moment with the people who matter to you,” a Facebook spokesperson was quoted as saying.

To recall, Facebook tried something similar when it let Instagram users post their Stories directly as Facebook Stories, back in October last year.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced that ‘Instagram Stories’ and ‘WhatsApp Status’ both now have 300 million daily active users.

The features, which are the clones of rival app Snapchat, now boast numbers almost twice the size of Snapchat that has 173 million daily active users.

Facebook has also rolled out a feature that lets users share ‘Instagram Stories’ directly to ‘Facebook Stories’.

The option to syndicate Instagram Stories to Facebook Stories is available for US users and will be officially rolled out for everyone around the world.

[“Source-gadgets.ndtv”]

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