Meta is set to discontinue its cross-platform messaging service, ending the ability to message Facebook accounts from your Instagram account and vice versa. Three years after introducing the feature, users will be limited to messaging within the platform they are currently using. Although Meta hasn’t provided a specific reason for this decision, the announcement aligns with the anticipated timeline for default end-to-end encryption (E2EE) support on Messenger by the end of the year.

According to a recently added Instagram support page, cross-app communication chats will be disabled by mid-December. Ongoing chats between users on different platforms will become read-only, preserving chat history but preventing further interaction.

Once Meta turns off cross-platform chatting, initiating new chats with Facebook Messenger users from your Instagram account and vice versa will no longer be possible. Existing cross-platform chats will not automatically transfer to the other platform.

Facebook users, accustomed to seeing online status and message read receipts, will lose access to these features when communicating with Instagram users. To continue chatting across both platforms, users must start new chats within the same app.

While Meta hasn’t explicitly stated the reason for discontinuing cross-app communication chats introduced in 2020, the decision coincides with the company’s plan to implement default E2EE on Messenger. Meta aims to launch E2EE for one-to-one friends and family chats, ensuring enhanced privacy with encrypted conversations that only the sender and recipient can access, except in reported cases. Notably, Meta already supports end-to-end encryption for chats on WhatsApp.