Meta Will Soon Push New Meta Account System to Facebook and Instagram Users

Meta announced yesterday that Facebook, Instagram, and its other social platforms that use its Account Center system for managing connected experiences will soon be upgraded to Meta Accounts. For users who choose to connect different Meta services under the same Meta account, the company said that they will enjoy a simpler login experience with Passkeys support and more seamless cross-app settings.

To be clear, you already needed a Meta Account to use a Meta Quest or Meta Ray-Ban AI glasses. But this year, Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Threads accounts, which currently use Meta’s Account Center system for managing cross-app experiences, will also become Meta Accounts. It will also be possible to add WhatsApp accounts to a Meta Account, just as you can today in the Account Center experience, but this will remain optional.

Again, Meta won’t force users to add all their accounts and devices to a single Meta Account. ”You can choose to have different Meta Accounts for different apps or devices. For example, you can have a Meta Account for your Facebook and another Meta Account for your Instagram profile. You can choose to keep WhatsApp separate from your Meta Account and manage your WhatsApp as you do today,” the company emphasized.

For users who choose to associate different profiles under the same Meta Account, however, it will be possible to configure a unique password or passkey to log into all of them. “Key settings like personal details and ad preferences are located in one place with Meta Account, so you can manage what matters to you without having to jump between apps,” Meta also explained.

Meta accounts used for managing different apps and services will also offer personalized security recommendations. For parents, the Family Center within a Meta Account will also provide a single dashboard for managing their teens’ supervised Instagram, Facebook, Messenger, and Meta Horizon accounts.

All in all, if you never wanted to combine the different Meta services you use under the same account, nothing will really change for you. You’ll just have separate Meta accounts for each service, and you’ll gain the ability to secure your Instagram account with a passkey.