Facebook is introducing a new feature for its Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram apps, which it calls Accounts Center. This feature, available in the each of these apps" settings, lets users more easily link their different accounts on Facebook"s social networks, including Facebook proper and Instagram at this point.
With Accounts Center, users can choose to link accounts from these different platforms, making it easier to do things such as creating a new post on both networks at the same time. Additionally, it"s possible to sync the profile picture and name between accounts, so when a change is made on one social network, it"s reflected across all of them. This is optional, though, and it"s possible to keep accounts linked with different names.
Additionally, linking accounts makes it easier to log into an Instagram account using Facebook information, for instance. Facebook is also adding Facebook Pay information to the types of data you can sync between accounts, so you can make payments and donations on either Instagram or Facebook without entering your information multiple times.
Most of the features in Accounts Center - including Accounts Center itself - are optional, so users won"t have information linked unless they choose to. Facebook also says that this doesn"t change the way it handles user data, since it"s already using data across all of its apps for targeted advertising.