Facebook could be working on an official Messenger app for Mac, according to a report from TechCrunch.
The report comes with a blurry photo of the purported pre-release version of Facebook's Messenger app being tried out by a Facebook employee on a MacBook.
"TechCrunch has obtained photographic evidence and an eyewitness report that Facebook has built an as-yet-unreleased Facebook Messenger For Mac desktop app," says the report. "The photo ... shows a Facebook employee using it."
The report's source claims that the app used by the employee in the photo has the name Messenger in the Menu bar and features Messenger's logo as the icon in the app Dock.
If true, the standalone Messenger app for Mac will allow users to easily connect with their friends without the need to launch a browser window.
At this point, Facebook has not made any confirmation yet on the veracity of this report. When contacted for comments on the speculation, Facebook declined to disclose any details.
"We don't comment on rumor or speculation," said Facebook.
Not The First Time
If the rumor turns out to be true, this would not be the first time Facebook built an official Messenger app for desktop.
Back in 2012, the company rolled out Messenger for Windows. It seemed, however, that Facebook ignored pushing out updates for the app in the succeeding years. In March 2014, the company decided to kill it off, saying it "can no longer support Facebook Messenger for Windows." The app was officially discontinued on March 3 of that year.
Quite a few Messenger users, however, have been clamoring for a desktop version of the app. As such, several cyber criminals took advantage of the emand to push out a few illegitimate versions, some of which include FbMacMessenger and Messenger For Desktop.
Messenger.com
More than a year after the desktop app stopped working, Facebook launched Messenger.com. Through this browser interface, it allowed users to chat with their friends free from distractions, as it does not feature other Facebook functionalities, such as the News Feed.
800 Million Users
It wasn't long ago when we reported that Facebook's Messenger app already notched a total of about 800 million users. As such, it was officially deemed as the highest-trending app for 2015.
To entice more customers into its messenger platform, Facebook threw in a slew of nifty, new features last year, including the introduction of video chat plus customizable options, which include emojis, nicknames and colors.
