The New York Times has reported that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg plans to link all three apps, so they operate from the same infrastructure.

All three services will continue to operate as stand-alone apps, with the project due to complete at the end of this year or potentially early 2020.

The project will make it possible for messages to travel easily between the different services.

The plan marks a change in strategy for Facebook, which had previously kept Instagram and WhatsApp reasonably independent. At 15:30 Facebook’s shares, which are listed on the Nasdaq, were trading up 1.4% at $147.87 per share.

The move follows a challenging 2018, which saw Facebook come under fire after allegations emerged that digital consultant Cambridge Analytica improperly accessed Facebook data to build profiles on US voters during the 2016 presidential election.