(Image source from: Reddit)

The social media giant Facebook is currently working towards the integration of its chat services to allow users to message each other across platforms.

The three Facebook-owned apps - WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram - will support end-to-end encryption but Facebook is yet to provide a timeline for when this will come about, according to The New York Times.

“Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's chief executive, plans to integrate the social network's messaging services - WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook Messenger - asserting his control over the company's sprawling divisions at a time when its business has been battered by scandal,” the Times said.

However, the chat and photo-sharing services would continue to function as stand-alone apps.

"Their underlying technical infrastructure will be unified, said four people involved in the effort. That will bring together three of the world's largest messaging networks, which between them have more than 2.6 billion users, allowing people to communicate across the platforms for the first time," the report added.

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The move could let Facebook tout higher user engagement to advertisers, thus, ramping up its advertising division at a time when growth has slowed down.

Facebook has the record users of any other social media platform, and by combining its assets this way, the company could more directly compete with Apple's iMessage and Google's messaging services, according to The Verge.

-Sowmya Sangam