WhatsApp Status updates can now be shared as Facebook Stories: Here’s how

WhatsApp Status updates can now be shared as Facebook Stories: Here’s how

WhatsApp has added the option to share WhatsApp Status updates as Facebook Stories in the stable Android update. Here is how it works.

Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp unification program starts with cross-sharing of WhatsApp Status to Facebook Stories.

At the start of this year, Facebook shared its vision to unify three apps under its umbrella — Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp –and looks like the plan is in action now. WhatsApp users on Android can now share their Status updates directly to Facebook Stories, the Indianexpress.com has learned.

The option to share Instagram Stories to Facebook is already available and WhatsApp has joined the party as well. Select users in WhatsApp Android beta program were given the access to the feature back in June this year, and now the feature is finally available to the latest stable version of WhatsApp.

How to share WhatsApp Status to Facebook Stories

*Go to ‘My Status’

Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp unification program starts with cross-sharing of WhatsApp Status to Facebook Stories.

*Tap on the Hamburger icon next to the Status you want to share to Facebook

*Tap on ‘Share to Facebook’

*You will see your Facebook profile picture at the bottom with your default privacy setting

*Tap on ‘Share now’ to share the Story

The links on Facebook Stories, shared from WhatsApp Status, aren’t active.

Before sharing the WhatsApp Status to the Facebook Story, you can change the Facebook Story privacy settings directly from WhatsApp to choose from Public, Friends and connections, Friends, or Custom.

Once a WhatsApp Status is posted as Facebook Story, it will stay there for 24 hours. A WhatsApp Status can be shared as Facebook Story multiple times and it stays there even if you delete the original WhatsApp status. Notably, the WhatsApp Status updates shared to Facebook Stories appear only as a screenshot. So, if you are sharing a WhatsApp update that carries a link, it will not be clickable on Facebook but appear only as a picture with text.

The option to cross-post Stories on WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook could be the first step for the social media giant towards enabling cross-platform messaging while retaining the three apps as independent platforms. However, unifying the infrastructure of these apps is technically challenging because unlike Facebook Messenger and Instagram, WhatsApp uses end-to-end encryption by default and doesn’t store user data. But, the end result could be profitable for Facebook as it will tie up billions of its users.