The Multichat Blog

What does cross-platform messaging on Instagram and Messenger mean for your business?

by Multichat Team Company news, Company news conversational marketing, conversational marketing Facebook messenger, Facebook messenger Updates,


So, how do you define ‘huge’?


I would say that if the biggest and most well known social media platform starts merging its giant products that collect billions of users each is right in the ballpark.
The recent news that Facebook has introduced cross-app communication between Messenger and Instagram with extended features and that there is a new Messenger API with Instagram support for 3rd party external applications is a huge step forward into a more unified and effective business communication option across Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram. 

Video: https://www.facebook.com/facebook/videos/665036064444904/


The landscape before the change


Previously there was a “Facebook first” approach that basically meant the company has strongly preferred users of any of its platforms to have a Facebook account registered. However, it is clear that Instagram is much more popular across generation Z so offering better cross-platform messaging has become vital in moving forward.
Facebook has an excellent business integration and advanced ‘admin’ interface for advertisements, campaigns with reports and statistics. It was also the first to enable 3rd party connections to be built with its Messenger platform, enabling tools to better integrate chat messaging into the communication strategy of millions of businesses worldwide. It has been supporting automated replies, sponsored chat messages and chatbots for many years now, something that is still lacking in its other platforms.

WhatsApp has a business integration option but it is still in a closed beta status enabling only the largest enterprises and brands to successfully apply to use its encrypted messaging channels and it is still tied really strongly to stored contacts with a phone number.



Better communication and more opportunities for businesses


According to a Yotpo survey, 89% of its users have bought something they first saw on Instagram. No matter if you have an eCommerce store or a direct-to-consumer brand, it is hard to deny the significant importance of the platform.
The new borderless communication will enable businesses to have a much better and more consistent communication with its potential and current customers at every stage of the buying cycle and the newly announced API option makes sure that this communication can be large scale and automated but still remain personalized.
multichat.ai extends this with automated welcome messages and replies to frequently asked user questions and advanced tagging that can later be used for hyper precise segmentation. Equally importantly the hybrid engine allows automatic handover to Live Chat so team members can also help out customers and sales staff can quickly close leads. This altogether creates a much higher customer satisfaction and reduced support response times.

Facebook Shops, announced in May 2020, enables businesses to create a unified storefront across Facebook and Instagram but with this Instagram update the opportunity is finally here to unify similarly the business communication and large scale customer conversations across the platforms.

Due to high demand coming from our users, multichat.ai is among the first ones to apply for early access to the new Messenger API support for Instagram. If you would like to be among the first shops implementing the latest technology, please get in touch with us.