Facebook to pull chat from iOS and Android apps in favour of Facebook Messenger

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2339143/facebook-to-pull-chat-from-ios-and-android-apps-in-favour-of-facebook-messenger

by rocky5 • 12 years ago

21 45 12 years ago

theinquirer.net

nemasu2• 12 years ago

I dislike fragmentation, so this is probably a good thing? I don't use Facebook to really care either way though.

higherpurpose• 12 years ago

If you dislike fragmentation, then you shouldn't like this.

nemasu2• 12 years ago

I was under the impression they're consolidating 2 messaging front ends into one? I guess they're really just deleting one, but same difference.

sujito• 12 years ago

The new battlefield is the real estate on your phone´s front page. FB + Messenger + Instagram + Whatsapp: 4 out of 16 icons, not bad.

rimantas• 12 years ago

iPhone 5* screen has a place for 20 icons + 4 in the dock.

GotAnyMegadeth• 12 years ago

Can you have folders on iOS? I've bundled all of my messaging apps together.

bookwormAT• 12 years ago

For most smartphones the number of icons that fit on a home screen is independent from the device type or the operating system on the device.

Different Android-based operating systems come with different UIs, and installing a new home screen UI on any of them is as easy as installing Angry Birds.

nosage• 12 years ago

Very interesting theory! Google must not have realized this because all of the google apps are in a single folder. Still, my home screen is 4 out of 20: Google folder, Gmail, Chrome and Authenticator.

sillysaurus3• 12 years ago

Random question: Is Authenticator secure from Google themselves? I thought "yes," but after thinking a little more it seems like the answer is "maybe not."

What's to prevent an app like Authenticator from uploading its cryptographic seeds to Google's servers?

I was wondering why a company would invest resources into creating an app like Authenticator, which seems to have no obvious path toward monetization. But if the company who writes Authenticator can also spy on its users, then that might be the answer.

balladeer2• 12 years ago

It's the user's choice, like in my case this number is ZERO.

smackfu• 12 years ago

Facebook has been playing this game for a while. They've also had Facebook Camera since mid-2012. It was clearly meant as a drop-in replacement for the iOS camera app, that just made it easier to upload your photos to Facebook.

baby• 12 years ago

What about the oculus icon.

brohoolio• 12 years ago

For people like myself who have Facebook on my mobile but not the messaging app it means we now need to install it.

For some percentage of folks like myself that means we might start using facebook messaging more instead of using it as the messaging platform of last resort.

jfoster3• 12 years ago

There's also going to be some percentage that drop off their messaging platform as a result. Will be interesting to see how this pans out.

SixSigma• 12 years ago

Or just use a web browser and use the FB mobile website.

w1ntermute• 12 years ago

I use Tinfoil for this: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.danvelazco...

celebril• 12 years ago

Oh great, now there's a double whammy 40 MB + 40 MB for the stupid MqttPushService that is run twice by the Facebook and the Facebook Messenger apps.

Might as well not use Facebook on this 512 MB device. Why can't Facebook just implement push via GCM without sucking all the memory and wakelocks itself?

balladeer2• 12 years ago

Maybe it doesn't want to pass through a Google service.

jdevonport• 12 years ago

I have tried and uninstalled Messenger a few times, it seems like a really bad user experience to be bounced out of the main app whenever you want to have a quick chat with someone.

Waiting for apps to multitask switch can get very irritating and I think for me it would mean I use Facebook chat less if anything.

robk• 12 years ago

I'm quite pleased about this actually. I find FB messenger to be annoying and I hate getting interrupted when I'm just popping into the FB app for a minute or two. This way I can leave it uninstalled entirely and check FB messages later from home.

koyote• 12 years ago

I see this as a good thing.

It will hopefully reduce the memory and processing the main Facebook app leaves and at the same time it will give everyone a great opportunity to ditch the Facebook messaging service in favour of the plethora of other messaging apps already installed on their devices.

I, for one, will stop using the Facebook messenger entirely on my phone.

jfoster3• 12 years ago

Will be interesting to see if they see this through. I might be missing something, but I don't see any business reason for them to do this. They will lose some users, and that seems a painful prospect for them. They value user bases so much that they paid $19B for Whatsapp.

Difficult to imagine them not reversing this decision at a later date.

jaegerpicker2• 12 years ago

Their purchase of whatsapp is exactly why they did this, IMO. I'd be very surprised if facebook messages doesn't become whatsapp and get completely tied into it. That's really the only way buying WhatsApp for $19B makes sense.

thix0tr0pic• 12 years ago

I've actually done the opposite, ditching facebook exclusively for the messenger app. I've yet to see something adopted so universally by the people I talk to most.

qzc42• 12 years ago

This is just an opportunity for Facebook to show twice as many ads as usual.

It's sad, but I really do feel bad for the people who use Facebook nowadays. When I have to look at the job market again, I'm really not looking forward to having to (a) sign up in the first place, (b) have that stupid like button following me around everywhere again and (c) have to become "friends" with people that I really don't want to see anymore.

And then they bought Oculus VR. Seriously?

jfoster3• 12 years ago

How does it let them show more ads? Users already spend a huge amount of their time on mobile devices in the Facebook app. One user can only pay attention to one app at a time.

qzc42• 12 years ago

I guess not on iOS, but on Android you have to go through a few more steps to "chat" -- home > messenger app > search contacts > chat, versus just tapping a button. That is 2 more screens worth of ads to go through.

poopsintub• 12 years ago

I have never seen an ad in messenger.

klapinat0r• 12 years ago

Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7562642

phatfish• 12 years ago

If the Messenger app will work without the Facebook app this could be a good thing? I would like to know about IMs people send me, but i have no interest in the stream of adverts and status updates...

JonLim• 12 years ago

I've been using the Messenger app exclusively for the past year, as I had no interest in looking through status updates or anything that the Facebook app did. Works wonderfully if you just want to respond to messages or send messages to people.

hownottowrite• 12 years ago

Not much of a surprise. It's a necessary first step to slowly integrating WhatsApp.

jasonlingx• 12 years ago

This is incredibly annoying. For the last couple of months the FB app has been switching me to the messenger app every time I accidentally hit the messenger button in the middle of the bottom navbar. And every single time it nags me with a full screen interstitial asking me to turn on notifications!!! Removing all FB apps now.

alexbilbie• 12 years ago

I've been using the two apps for a while now and I'm perfectly happy - the only annoying aspect is sometimes I have a little red notification counter above both apps when I receive a message.

The principle reason why I like the Messages app is that it's very fast to load - presumably because it isn't trying to download my friends' terrible photos and timelines and events and all the other junk that is in the main FB app.

welly• 12 years ago

Looks like I won't be messaging anyone on Facebook from my phone then.

That was an easy decision.

Facebook to pull chat from iOS and Android apps in favour of Facebook Messenger

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