Facebook Messenger is opening up for beta testing, and you’re invited! Their popular messaging service is now entering a beta phase, which Facebook has been using successfully with their regular app as well. To join in, you have to jump through some hoops, but it might be worth it if you like to see features ahead of a wider release.

On their blog, Facebook says “With more than one million daily active users from over 150 countries, the Facebook for Android beta testing program has been successful in giving us feedback to make Facebook for Android more stable. We are now ready to extend our Android Beta testing program to Messenger as well.” The beta program for each app will be updated regularly with the mysterious “bug fixes” being the only line-item of note, with rarely any massive overhauls. The Facebook app itself is often updated multiple times weekly, so expect much of the same with Facebook Messenger.

If you’re interested in signing up, all you have to do is join a Google Group for the beta program. Once accepted, you’ll be asked to click a link acknowledging you want to be a beta tester, which all happens pretty instantly. From there, you’ll have to uninstall and re-install the Messenger app, and away you go — beta testing.

If you want to opt-out at any point, just leave the group and uninstall and re-install the app. Facebook asks that any tester simply give feedback if they have issues, which is of course meant to make the program better in the long run. We’re all beta testers of the Facebook app at Android Community, and there’s never been a problem. We’ll sign up just to see if Facebook took any cues from WhatsApp about messaging.

3 COMMENTS

  1. Same problem.
    After joining the group, I’ve not been redirected to Google Play to download the beta version.
    Anyone knows why?

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