Facebook Opens Instagram Messaging to Combat Snapshot

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Now that cameras are standard feature on our phones, it’s no surprise that sending images has become commonplace, with Snapchat sending 200 million images per day and WhatsApp more than 300 million. Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) acquired Instagram to stay on top of the explosion in digital photography and now it’s allowing iOS to send Instagram photos for the same reason, writes Josh Constine at TechCrunch.

Facebook Opens Instagram Messaging to Combat Snapshot

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)  Instagram changes

The practical change is relatively small. In the past iOS Messenger users couldn’t send pictures that were saved in their Instagram album, and instead had to find the same picture filed under Camera Roll. It might not seem like the end of the world, but Instagram automatically saves pictures you upload in its own album, making the whole thing a bit of a pain. The addition of a few clicks multiplied over multiple messages sent every day is enough to drive someone into a rival service, which is exactly what Facebook is trying to avoid.

What’s more significant is that the move shows Facebook is serious about getting involved in photo messaging. It’s already tried to develop its own software, Poke, but it has basically been abandoned by users. Making Instagram more amenable to texting is Facebook’s way of regrouping and attacking the problem from another angle.

And there’s no reason to assume that this is the last move Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) will make. Further integration into the Facebook App or Facebook Home are likely, and it shouldn’t be too long before the drop down menu in status updates has an Instagram option that pulls images directly the app’s album. Constine points out that “if enough users find the drop-down option and use it, they might even start to take Instagrams with the purpose of sharing them,” which opens up a whole new realm of possibility (imagine personalized emoticons made up of people you know or visual inside jokes).

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)  goal

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s ultimate goal is to dominate social communication (and then leverage that dominance into advertising dollars, of course) and it’s clear that social communication is becoming increasingly visual. Sharing pictures should be no more complicated than firing off a few sentences, and if Facebook can manage to make that happen odds are it will retina its position on top of social media.

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