WhatsApp now lets you cross-post status updates to Instagram and Facebook

Summary

• WhatsApp's status tools are basic, lacking remixing capabilities like Instagram Stories.
• Nonetheless, Meta just announced that WhatsApp now supports cross-posting status updates to Instagram through Meta's Accounts Center.
• The integration is opt-in and not mandatory, with more linked features coming in the future.

WhatsApp is one of Meta's older acquisitions, at least as far as social media platforms go. For nearly a decade thereafter, it retained its independent identity. However, changes in the past couple of years have brought WhatsApp closer to other Meta platforms such as Messenger and Instagram. These include support for short video messages, status updates, Communities, and Instagram-like emoji reactions. Now, WhatsApp supports cross-posting your status updates to other Meta platforms.

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In its current state, WhatsApp's status update creation tools are rather rudimentary, reminiscent of Instagram's Story tools from five years ago. The divide is noticeable if you want to remix another contact's WhatsApp status, apply filters, or add background music to video clips in the app. While a fix for the latter might be coming since we saw it in development in 2023, your updates from WhatsApp or Instagram only make it to other Meta apps as screenshots or downloads that are then re-uploaded.

Meta just announced a permanent fix for that, with WhatsApp coming to Accounts Center — the one place to manage all your Meta app accounts. Once you set that up, you can reshare your WhatsApp status updates directly to the gram or your Facebook account using a simple toggle switch in the Who can see my status section of WhatsApp settings. It saves you the effort of downloading and re-uploading copies or taking screenshots. WhatsApp's inclusion in the Accounts Center also means you can log in quicker with SSO on a new phone.

The change is completely opt-in

No change if you don't want it

Source: Meta

Meta promises more such linked features are in the pipeline, but has clarified one important detail at the outset. Integration is not mandatory, and interested users will have to add their WhatsApp account to the Account Center manually. Meta hopes this is assurance enough that the account set up using your phone number remains separate from the others.

However, I also wonder how many users would find merit in sharing a WhatsApp story on Instagram, other than with close friends who would see the content on either platform anyway. That's because the chat platform's status update creation tools are a far cry from what Meta has implemented on Instagram and Facebook. Sharing content the other way around might be a more interesting approach.

The feature will roll out in the coming months, and the company isn't committing to a date yet.