Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Facebook wants Instagram Stories users to post all of their updates on WhatsApp too

The new feature will allow people to post the same content to both platforms in one move

Aatif Sulleyman
Friday 05 January 2018 16:03 GMT
Comments

Facebook has encouraged people to start posting everything that they upload to picture sharing site Instagram Stories on its WhatsApp messenger service.

The company has introduced an option for cross-posting updates on both platforms.

These updates would disappear after 24 hours on the platforms, which are both owned by the social media giant, a feature already available with Instagram Stories - a feature which allows users to collate pictures and videos into a slide show.

The option is not available to all Instagram users yet, however, as Facebook is still trialling it.

But it is thought the feature will help regular users of both platforms to save time, by allowing them to post the same content in one move.

“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 spokesperson told the TechCrunch website.

Instagram Stories had 300 million daily active users in November and WhatsApp Status has a similar number.

It is unclear how popular the new feature will be, as some people may feel more comfortable posting personal updates to one service or the other and will not necessarily want to post to both at the same time.

Stories, however, hasn’t had the same sort of success on Facebook or Messenger, where it is being largely ignored.

Facebook recently combined Facebook Stories and Messenger Day to create Stories, because people didn’t know why or even if the two features were actually distinct from one another.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in