Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg wants to integrate Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp in an attempt to keep users engaged within the company’s ecosystem, the New York Times has reported.

Although Mr Zuckerberg wants to keep all three as separate apps with their own interfaces, he has reportedly made a decision to integrate their underlying technical infrastructure, making it easier to cross-post between them. 

Mark Zuckerberg has upset many people at WhatsApp, the NYT reported. Photo: Shutterstock

The plans would, if implemented, see all three services incorporate end-to-end encryption – something only WhatsApp offers at the moment – and allow users on one platform to communicate directly with users on another.

A person with just a WhatsApp account, for instance, would be able to send an encrypted message to somebody who is only on Facebook Messenger.

Mr Zuckerberg hopes that the shift would incentivise users to remain within the Facebook app family for longer, allowing it to bolster its advertising business.

If confirmed, the strategy direction would represent a complete U-turn in Facebook’s previous approach to its prized assets.

When Mr Zuckerberg first bought out WhatsApp and Instagram, he insisted that the companies would remain at arms’ length from its parent brand.

But cracks in the relationship between Facebook and the two companies have come out into the open over the past year, with the founders of both Instagram and WhatsApp quitting the companies after Mr Zuckerberg began imposing himself more on the companies’ respective strategies.

According to the New York Times, Mr Zuckerberg wants the change to be in effect by the end of this year or early in 2020.