There has been a lot of talk about the possibility of combining different social networks and instant messengers in one application. It is no secret that Facebook is striving to achieve integration of its core services: Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp however, they are still a ways off achieving their goal. In this article, we put together applications that unite social networks and instant messengers together.
Note: It is important to understand that all manager programs we talk about are using a browser to aggregate instant messengers and social networks. They cannot fully integrate with WhatsApp, Facebook, Messenger, Instagram due to the fact that the company's services do not provide external developers with such a technological opportunity.
Franz
Created by developers from Vienna and named after the last Austrian emperor, the Franz application is a manager that collects and groups multiples apps in one browser such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram, Skype, Slack, HipChat, Google Hangouts and Grape all in separate tabs.
Pros: Franz has no advertising and guarantees the user the confidentiality of their information: data is protected by end-to-end encryption. This application may be useful for communicating with colleagues from work.
Cons: it works only on computers with Windows, macOS and Linux, but not on Android and iOS.
This manager isn’t limited to instant messengers and social networks – with it you can work with email clients and even use Tinder! IM + aggregates Facebook and Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Telegram, Twitter, Google Talk, Reddit, Skype, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tinder and many more.
Note: IM supports WhatsApp, WeChat, and Slack only on iPad.
The Maki + application is designed primarily for the integration of Facebook and Facebook Messenger and works only on Android. This program can come in handy if your device doesn’t have much space for two full-fledged applications. Perhaps, the main advantage of Maki + is that it can block Facebook ads. In addition, it can filter certain posts in the feed by using keywords. While using the application, you can switch between your Facebook account and Facebook Messenger.
With Maki +, you can also use Instagram, Vkontakte, Twitter, Reddit accounts and even download photos from Instagram to your device. However, this manager doesn’t provide all the functions that full-fledged applications of these services offer, as it doesn’t work with the original applications, but with their browser versions instead.
TweetDeck is a program for Windows, with which you can use social networks and services such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Foursquare, Google Buzz, YouTube and others in one interface. You can chat, view other users' accounts, post photos and videos.
With All in One Messenger you can open any chat in WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Snapchat and other apps with just one click. There is an option of chat mask to protect your private conversations in public.
Pros: you can get statistics on how you use your messengers and how much time do you spend on it.
Important note: you can find other applications that advertise themselves as managers of social networks and instant messengers. However, we don’t recommend using them, as there is not enough information about their authors or the algorithms used and therefore, no guarantee that your data, passwords and personal correspondence will be safe when using these questionable services.
This document, titled « Social Networks and Instant Messengers in One Application? », is available under the Creative Commons license. Any copy, reuse, or modification of the content should be sufficiently credited to CCM (ccm.net).
