Is WhatsApp changing its name?

Facebook changed its parent company's name to "Meta" on Thursday as the tech giant tries to move past being a scandal-plagued social network to its virtual reality vision for the future.

But its widely used instant messaging app, WhatsApp, still has the name, and according to their Twitter post, the company has no idea of changing it.

"Because we love to keep it simple: The Facebook company is now @Meta! WhatsApp is still @WhatsApp!" the instant messaging app said on its Twitter handle.

Facebook's announcement that the company would henceforth be called Meta unleashed a torrent of hilarity on Twitter from companies, people, and even the social media giant itself.

While critics pummelled Facebook over the change, claiming the rebranding aims to distract from the company's scandals, the internet still had a good laugh.

The new handle comes as the company battles to fend off one of its worst crises yet and pivot to its ambitions for the "metaverse," which would blur the lines between the physical world and the digital one.

Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — which are used by billions around the world — will keep their names under the rebranding critics have called an effort to distract from the platform's dysfunction.

"We've learned a lot from struggling with social issues and living under closed platforms, and now it is time to take everything that we've learned and help build the next chapter," CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during an annual developers conference.

— Additional input from AFP