Facebook wants to do away with messaging chat in its standalone mobile app. Instead, users will have to download a separate messaging app for their mobile devices if they want to chat with their friends on the platform.
Facebook Messenger is the preferred messaging app and the one Facebook is pushing on users. But users should beware and read the fine print in the terms of use to make sure they're comfortable sharing private information with the social network.
Facebook will be removing the messaging feature within its standalone app for smartphones and mobile devices over the next several days and forcing users to migrate to Messenger, as a recent Tech Times article pointed out in late July. Some Facebook users reportedly received email notifications alerting them of the change. Others have not yet received any word from the network, but news has spread quickly of the move.
"Messages are moving out of the Facebook app and over to the Messenger app, so now we'll be asking people to install Messenger and start sending messages from there instead," Facebook announced on its website.
Facebook is a company that makes its fortune by gathering user data to deliver marketing messages to its users via advertising and other methods. In other words, its vast vault of personal user data is its cash cow. Because of this strategy of mining information from users, Facebook has come under fire from privacy advocates. The new change regarding messaging capability is no exception.
The fine print tells the story. Critics say Facebook has exploited users' disregard for reading terms and conditions. In this latest move, the company will be granted access to users' contacts, phone call log and accounts stored on devices. Even more telling is that by downloading the app and agreeing to the terms, Facebook Messenger users will also allow Facebook access to call those contacts in the user's phone, according to a report. Many Internet users don't pay too close attention to the jargon within terms of service agreements.
Within the mobile app version, Facebook is granted the ability keep the phone from sleeping and conserving battery life, which is seen as a major drawback to many smartphone users.
Also troubling to many is that Facebook can even record audio and video from the users' phone. It can also trace what apps the user has been using, according to another report. Facebook claims the Messenger app can get messages sent faster than the traditional app and that replies are sent 20 percent faster on average.
