Instagram and WhatsApp get a rebrand

whatsapp and Instagram logos
(Image credit: Facebook)

Facebook is set to assert its authority by rebranding WhatsApp and Instagram to 'WhatsApp from Facebook' and 'Instagram from Facebook', respectively. While the new names don't exactly roll off the tongue, they do cement a connection that had previously been a little ambiguous – and make it clear who's boss when it comes to social media.

Facebook bought photo app Instagram in 2012 and popular messaging platform WhatsApp in 2014, but the brands had traditionally been allowed to operate independently. It looks like the move is part of a wider effort to closer integrate its sister apps into the 'Facebook family' – the co-founders of both WhatsApp and Instagram left Facebook abruptly last year, to be replaced by veteran Facebook executives. The news also comes as Facebook’s acquisitions of both apps come under scrutiny by antitrust regulators.

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Ruth Hamilton

Ruth spent a couple of years as Deputy Editor of Creative Bloq, and has also either worked on or written for almost all of the site's former and current print titles, from Computer Arts to ImagineFX. She now spends her days reviewing mattresses and hiking boots as the Outdoors and Wellness editor at T3.com, but continues to write about design on a freelance basis in her spare time.