The world of the instant messaging app is a complicated one with more options than most of us could ever use. Your iPhone comes with iMessage built right into the Messages app, but there are tons of other options including Telegram, Signal, WhatsApp, and more. Two of those messaging apps are getting a divorce, and the reason for it could be the most interesting part of the whole story.
The Meta-owned Instagram and Facebook Messenger apps have long been intertwined in a way that is set to go away, although it hasn't been confirmed via a press release or official statement. Instead, the change was quietly pushed to a support page but the upshot is the same regardless. While previously Instagram users were able to message Facebook Messenger users and vice versa, that's going away. The fact that it ever existed in the first place might come as a surprise to some — it doesn't appear that it ever went live in Europe, which interesting for reasons we'll get to later.
