If you did not know, Mark Zuckerberg now wants you to know that Facebook owns Instagram and WhatsApp.
He is doing this by rebranding the apps to “Instagram from Facebook” and “WhatsApp from Facebook.” This was reported by The Information and Facebook has confirmed directly.
“We want to be clearer about the products and services that are part of Facebook,” a spokesperson told The Information.
The app rebranding is a major departure for Facebook, which until recently had allowed the apps to operate and be branded independently. The distance has helped both apps avoid being tarnished by the privacy scandals that have hurt Facebook.
Thankfully, the apps names will remain the same on the homescreen of your device for now, however the new names will appear for both apps in Apple’s App Store and Google Play. But it’s very likely that you’ll see “from Facebook” on the splash screen for both apps as it has already done with Oculus very soon.
Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion in 2012 and WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014, and each is now used by more than 1 billion people.
Early this year, Facebook announced plans to integrate the technical infrastructure for WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger.
