Over the years, Facebook has purchased many successful businesses but has for a large part kept these services separate, at least as far as the public can observe. But now we're slowly starting to see that change, as Facebook Page admins become able to respond to Instagram Direct Messages right from their inbox.

In a press release for the Facebook Communities Summit, the social giant has announced integration that makes it easier for users managing pages to communicate with their followers on the photo-sharing service.

It may seem like a small step but could mark the beginning of further integration between the various Facebook-owned services, especially considering the company is looking to unify its messaging apps. Opening up the ability to interact across social domains makes perfect sense for Facebook to, not only drive activity towards the site, but also ensure that users remain tied to the Facebook site itself.

The deep integration of services across Whatsapp, Instagram, and Facebook would be a massive competitive advantage over rival services. The ability to hook into the functionality each app has successfully been able to independently offer could make it hard for outside challengers to compete. The shared analytics obtained through user interaction of the integrated offerings could also help Facebook better monetize its services, but let's hope it's not at the cost of user experience.

Source: Facebook Newsroom

Thanks: Armando