Instagram and Facebook cross messaging is coming to an end

From mid-December, Instagram and Facebook’s messaging services will no longer be cross-compatible, according to a pair of Meta support pages quietly updated. Once the feature is discontinued, you won’t be able to start new cross-platform chats, and existing conversations between services will go into read-only mode. It’s unclear exactly when the pages were updated, but the Instagram version carried the notice as of at least November 21st.

A Meta spokesperson confirmed the change in a statement given to The Verge. “A few years ago, we introduced a new Messenger experience in Instagram DMs which enabled people to message and call a FB account (Messenger) from an Instagram account and vice versa,” spokesperson Alex Dziedzan said. “Starting in mid-December, we will begin removing this feature. However, people can continue to message and call their contacts on Facebook, Instagram or Messenger.”

The discontinuation of the feature comes a little over three years after it was launched in 2020. At the time, Instagram head Adam Mosseri suggested that the change would let Meta work more efficiently, building messaging features once and then rolling them out to all its products. Indeed, the launch of cross-platform messaging coincided with Instagram DMs receiving a number of features that were previously Messenger-exclusive, including vanishing messages and selfie stickers.