Facebook-owned messenger apps block Snapchat links

Both Instagram and Facebook-owned messenger service Whatsapp have taken steps in blocking the integration of apps such as Snapchat and Telegram from their networks by disabling links to such sites. It is believed that such action has been taken to keep users active on Instagram and Whatsapp for longer periods; it is still unknown whether links to other networks will also be blocked.

Instagram is a bit of an interesting product here. While it is owned by Facebook, it does things much different than their parent company. Instagram is all about multimedia – videos and pictures. And less so about posting links and such to promote content. In fact, the only area you can post links (and they actually become actionable) is in your profile. However Instagram has just clamped down on that a bit. It appears that you can no longer link to your Snapchat or Telegram profile from your Instagram profile. It’s unclear whether or not other social media networks are being blocked from the Instagram profile as well. But we can confirm that both Snapchat and Telegram are. You are only able to link to their homepage.

Something else that’s interesting, but not necessarily new, is the fact that in WhatsApp – also owned by Facebook – if there is a message with telegram mentioned, you are unable to select the text in that message. Even if it isn’t a hyperlink. We’re unsure of why this is happening, but we are pretty sure that Facebook wants to keep users on their networks and not heading to competitors. In an official statement, Instagram noted that these changes have been taking place because it’s not what the platform was designed to do. You can still link to other websites and such in your profile – or in our case, our @Androidheadline profile links to androidheadlines.com which still works perfectly fine on Instagram. However you cannot simply link to your Snapchat profile or Telegram. A bit unfortunate, but not much that users can do really.

It’s a bit interesting to see that Telegram and Snapchat are being blocked, but not larger competitors like Twitter, Periscope or Vine. Seeing as those are direct competitors to Facebook and their other apps including Instagram and WhatsApp. Instagram hasn’t said much about this just yet, other than blocking these sites is due to the way that Instagram was intended to be used. We’ll have to wait to hear more from Instagram. But don’t expect anything to change in regards to these Snapchat and Telegram links.