Facebook wants you to sync your Instagram contacts to Messenger, and some users are not happy

Facebook today is rolling out its latest feature to try to bridge the gap between its services and Instagram. As reported by TechCrunch, Facebook is now allowing users to sync their Instagram contact directly to Messenger, for better or for worse…

The option to sync your Instagram contacts appears in Facebook Messenger’s “People” tab. It joins the option to sync your existing phone contacts with Messenger.

Essentially, once you tap on the “Connect Instagram” button, Messenger automatically begins adding your Instagram contacts to Messenger. This means that once you tap that option, there’s no going back – and there’s no “Confirm/cancel” option either.

In addition to syncing contacts, this option also makes your Instagram username and account visible to other people on Messenger. The goal here is obviously to help bridge the gap between a user’s connections on Instagram and on Facebook.

When you tap on “Connect Instagram,” Messenger adds contacts from Instagram automatically. In addition, your Instagram username and account also then becomes visible to other people on Messenger.

The result is an expanded social graph of sorts – one that combines the friends and family you know from Facebook, without those you know from Instagram.

The feature is just the latest attempt by Instagram to try to bring its various platforms and services even closer together. It’s one, however, that isn’t going over too well with users. The primary issue many users seem to have is that the option is so easy to enable, and many people don’t necessarily want their Instagram and Facebook accounts linked – which this feature essentially does.

OMG FACEBOOK MESSENGER JUST ADDED ALL MY INSTAGRAM FRIENDS … WTF … I DIDNT MEAN 2 DO THAT I SWEAR I'M NOT A BEG LOOOL https://t.co/EgudOTfZyB

— Daniel Carelli (@RelliRellz) July 18, 2018

What do you think of Facebook’s newly-added ability to sync Instagram contacts to Messenger? Let us know down in the comments.

Subscribe to 9to5Mac on YouTube for more Apple news: