Meta is working on making it easier for users to switch between Facebook and Instagram accounts via a new profile switching tool.
Anyone using either app can jump between the apps if they’ve linked those profiles via Meta’s centralized profile hub, the account center. When logged in to one app, users can now easily switch between the apps via the profile menu, where any associated accounts will appear.
Meta encourages users to enable “connected experiences” through the Accounts Center, which unifies the identities of all its products. The feature is currently being tested, but the test is generally available to iOS, Android, and web users around the world.
At the same time that Meta wants users to rely on a centralized account for all apps, the company is also making it easier to create and manage multiple accounts. Now users can create new accounts using an existing Instagram or Facebook login instead of logging in from scratch, which admittedly was a bit of a pain to use your finsta or whatever. The new account creation feature, also in testing for now, is available worldwide on iOS and Android.
While Meta, formerly Facebook, was once diametrically opposed to the idea of its users maintaining a bunch of different profiles and instead pushing for a single “true” identity, the company has changed course in recent years.
There could be a few reasons for that. A generous read, Meta knows that digital identity is becoming more fluid and versatile, especially among younger users who feel comfortable on pseudonymous social platforms (TikTok, YouTube, Twitch, etc.). But Meta is also well aware that TikTok, its emerging rival, is cutting the time people spend on its own apps. Encouraging more accounts and more cross-platform signups can weaken user engagement rates, making things look a little less dire on quarterly revenue calls and the like.
Another equally cynical reading is that Meta wants its suite of apps to be as interconnected as possible these days, so that if regulators ever see the threats to break up the company, it won’t be as simple as forcing it to sell Instagram, WhatsApp, or be. VR activities. Whether or not regulators in the US will ever actually get on Meta, and whether they’d even give a damn about the technical realities of taking apart its myriad products if they did, remains to be seen, but it’s certainly very meta at all costs against any perceived threat to his business.