As Facebook announced that their “independent” Messenger app has already reached half a billion users, chances are some of those are still angry that they were “forced” to migrate to a separate app to keep using the service. But has Mark Zuckerberg admitted that they made a mistake with this move? Have people finally accepted that they shouldn’t be surprised anymore by the social media giant’s moves constant changes and moves that may alienate some but still keep the rest of us using it everyday?

Facebook head honcho Mark Zuckerberg, in the company’s first public town hall Q&A, had to face the question (in fact the very first one thrown at him) as to why they forced this change on their users. He said that separating the Messaging app from the main Facebook feed makes sense since not all users of the two actually intersect. For the growing number of mobile users who rely heavily on instant messaging, having the Messenger feature removed from the social network is actually very convenient. And even from an app development perspective, it gives the developers the freedom to build on its features and capabilities without crippling Facebook in itself.

And we have to admit, as much as we groaned and complained about the enforcement of the separate Messaging app, we have seen how it fueled the growth of conversations and added features (aren’t those stickers a hoot?) that we normally would’ve ignored since it will be lost in the noise of our news feed. The statement from Facebook on reaching their 500 million Messenger milestone says they are more committed than ever to bring “the best possible messaging experience” to its users.

We’re not sure if all this excitement over instant messaging apps like Viber, Line, Hangouts, etc, will actually fully replace SMS in the near future or if it’s just a fad that will eventually give way to something new. But for sure, Facebook will win either way, since its core product is still going strong as ever, and they can just kill the Messenger separately, if ever IMs become pointless in the future, without having to make a major change to the main app.

SOURCE: Facebook
VIA: SlashGear

3 COMMENTS

  1. half a million -> billion

    by the way I hate how the facebook app can cripple a little older phone so I’m happy that it is possible to use the chat part without that

  2. Forgive them? Why?
    Because they allowed me do uninstall permanently the battery hog useless facebook main app and now i have a small, light, and enhanced app without publicity that uses the ONLY USEFULL service facebook EVER had?
    Im thanking them instead.

  3. I’ve uninstalled the facebook app altogether. I generally stick with using facebook on my pc rather than on my phone now. If I do use it on my pc, I do it through the web browser app where I still get messaging built-in.
    I’m sure it’s all fine and dandy that the new messaging app has nice new features and so on, but I don’t use facebook messaging enough just justify having an entirely separate app for it. I do use it enough to want it as part of the main app though.

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