Facebook’s long-term goal of integrating its three giant social media applications is making some tangible progress. In August, Facebook started merging Messenger and Instagram chat, although the update is yet to go global.
The latest developments in the path to unifying its portfolio of apps, Facebook is testing automatic sharing of Instagram stories on the giant social media platform. Some Facebook users are now reporting being able to watch their Instagram stories directly from the main Facebook app.
The testing is still limited, however. But, there are a few things to note about the new feature. Of course, Facebook and Instagram stories have similar formats, so you won’t explicitly tell which is which. Facebook has a way of letting users differentiate between an Instagram and a Facebook story.
Facebook stories have a blue colour encircling the profile photo while Instagram stories still maintain the same pink/orange hues of the app icon. Due to Instagram’s granular privacy controls, only followers who have linked their accounts to Facebook will be able to see the cross-posted stories.
“People on Facebook who don’t follow you on Instagram can’t see your story.”
Additionally, these followers must also opt in. But here’s the baseline; you’ll still be sharing stories with the same people.
Facebook users who have linked their accounts to Instagram can still turn off the feature all together, according to a company spokesperson.