In a bid to bring the Facebook family closer together, the social media platform is testing a new feature which will show users notifications from Facebook, Messenger and Instagram all in one place. This means that people will be allowed to switch among the three apps seamlessly, because apparently toggling between them is too much effort.
The feature, which is currently being tested by select iOS users, will allow people scrolling through their Facebook Newsfeed to tap one button and access any new Instagram and Messenger notifications at once. Testers are being shown a little icon with the total number of pending notifications they have in the top right-hand corner of the Facebook app, with the number of unread alerts next to each social media account. With a single tap, they'll be taken to the respective app, which will in turn lead to a net rise in engagement for the Facebook app family. Essentially, this seems like another ploy by Facebook to ensure that users never leave the app's feed.
TechCrunch fisrt spotted this notifications test, and a Facebook spokesperson confirmed to The Debrief: 'we are conducting a very small test to make it easier for people to discover and connect with the people and things they care about. We're exploring ways to help people switch more easily between their Facebook, Messenger and Instagram accounts.'
While this may be a welcome move for some social media users, we're not entirely sure how we feel about the cross-app notifications feature. Yes, it may save some time, but we're also perfectly capable of opening our app of choice to check our notifications ourselves. And we can't help but feel that Facebook is exploiting it's users anxiety about unread alerts by compelling them to look at their notifications and get rid of the red number that beckons their attention.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.