Whether it's a real marketing strategy or it has something to do with privacy issue, Facebook Messenger will be a standalone app soon that needs to be downloaded separately. The messages button will remain in the main app but will carry users automatically to the separate Messenger app when one uses it.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has a simple explanation for this split-off.
"The other thing that we're doing with Messenger is making it so once you have the standalone Messenger app, we are actually taking messaging out of the main Facebook app. And the reason why we're doing that is we found that having it as a second-class thing inside the Facebook app makes it so there's more friction to replying to messages, so we would rather have people be using a more focused experience for that," he said.
The company further explained that the split-off messaging feature would benefit customers because users would get their messages 20 percent faster on a dedicated standalone app. With the split-off also comes possibly more new features. Example is the free calling feature that has been rolled out already to the Messenger. There's possibility, too, that the size of the main app will be minimized, making way for better speed and of course, some cleanup in the phone's memory.
"Once the [whole] process is complete, we expect the core apps to be faster," said a Facebook spokesperson.
Recall that, previously, facebook has received criticisms for its overstuffed main app, so this may be its response to such.
The new standalone Messenger app will be rolled out all over the world. The company has already contacted select European users, notifying them of the new requirement to download the Messenger app, reports say.
"We are starting to notify people this week and will be rolling this out on Android and [Apple's] iOS to a handful of countries over the next couple of weeks," a Facebook spokesperson revealed in an email.
Many Facebook users might not find this ideal or convenient at first, but the company's spokespersons assured that things will be easier, much cleaner, more organized and more efficient with the standalone Messenger app.
Peter Martinazzi, product manager at Facebook, also said they've been working on Messaging as part of Facebook since close to the beginning, with the intent of giving users a mobile-to-mobile experience.
Now, being a user of Android phones with low memory isn't so bad after all, as they are an exemption to the rule, same with Windows phone and tablet users but only for a time being. Having said that, if anyone wants out of this new app, that could be the free ticket.
Introduced only in November, the Facebook Messenger app has already been among the ranks of top free Android and iOS apps.
