Facebook Starts Whatsapp Integration for Android Users

Is Facebook planning to integrate WhatsApp Messenger into its 'Facebook for Android' app?

Yes, this might be possible soon. According to latest rumours, Facebook is reportedly working on it.

The social network giant, Facebook has begun testing a new feature in its Facebook app for Android that includes the first integration of WhatsApp Messenger, according to a blogger.

WHATSAPP INTEGRATION INTO FACEBOOK APP

According to this update, a year after of acquiring WhatsApp Messenger, Facebook has only added a 'Send' button with the WhatsApp icon.

This WhatsApp 'send' will work as part of the status actions options that appear under each status update.

It means that Facebook for Android users soon may have this particular version of Facebook app with a dedicated WhatsApp button that would allow an Android user to share posts, status and anything else directly through WhatsApp by just clicking the Share button.

If rumours are true, the upcoming version 31.0.0.7.13 of Facebook app for Android, which is not yet available publicly, could have this feature.

WILL FACEBOOK MERGE WITH WHATSAPP?

From past one year, we haven’t noticed any Facebook and WhatsApp integration, but this minor change made by the social network giant raised doubt in users’ mind that is Facebook going to merge WhatsApp with Facebook?

When Facebook acquired WhatsApp for over $20 billion in February last year, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg confirmed that Whatsapp and Facebook would continue to co-exist as separate platforms.

At that time, WhatsApp team also assured that nothing would change and that WhatsApp would operate independently.

However, this recent move by Facebook considered to be the first step towards merging the two popular platforms in order to take control of the popular messaging market and sustain growth together.

GeekTime blog also claimed that teams from both the companies are working on a deeper integration that will have the ability to send messages between WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.

'SHARE WITH WHATSAPP USERS' IS A MINOR UPDATE

However, the new feature seems just like a share via WhatsApp app that is very common feature adopted by different websites to make it easier for users to share contents with large number of audiences.

However, how deep this integration will go for users of both services will be known in the near future.

Source : Hackernews