Is Facebook developing a unified messaging system for businesses?

CONVERGENCE seems to the key to innovative solutions these days.

According to media reports, Facebook is in the midst of developing a unified messaging system for enterprises which will enable companies to manage messages both from Instagram Direct and Facebook Messenger under a single platform.

The report comes after last month’s revelation of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s plans of merging the back-end infrastructure of Instagram, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp, that have more than 2.6 billion users combined.

Now, the social media giant is planning to do the same for the business community.

The new feature will integrate Instagram Direct messaging inbox with the Facebook Pages Manager application for businesses, allowing page managers to access and respond to messages from either of the platforms.

At the moment, the tool only accesses messages from Facebook Messenger.

End-users meanwhile will notice no difference between messages sent from Instagram or Facebook Messenger as the feature is visible only to page managers.

Budding business messaging space

As Facebook seeks to boost its presence in the ever-growing business messaging segment, the company’s latest move could potentially be a game changer.

Increased time spent on Facebook’s messaging apps could boost ad revenues within the app.

In the era of digital marketing, consumer communication trends have transformed rapidly, and messaging apps have emerged as a crucial tool for businesses as it offers customer direct access to vendors.

Customers looking to streamline their shopping experience are increasingly resorting to messaging and chatbots, as corroborated by the Facebook stat pointing out that 10 billion messages are exchanged every month (between users and businesses) via Facebook’s various messaging platforms.

This trend is even more pronounced in the APAC region where 87 percent of smartphones owners use messenger apps, which opens up new opportunities for business to tap into and make a lasting impression on consumers.

Meanwhile, there is yet to be any official announcement from Facebook in regards to combining its messaging platforms.

The move could potentially increase Facebook’s utility, and relevance among the market previously left untapped and possibly revive the platform’s slowing growth rate.

The business community, on the other hand, might have to reconfigure their communication strategies to serve their consumers better, now that they have greater market access and reach.

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