Facebook is making Messenger a platform on mobile, and is now launching a separate standalone website for the messaging app. Unlike the mobile app Facebook won’t force users to the separate messaging site if they want to continue using the current Facebook website.
“Asking folks to install another app is a short-term painful thing, but if we wanted to focus on serving this well, we had to build a dedicated and focused experience,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained in his defense during a Q&A last fall.
The bare bones messaging site resembles the Messenger app, and is an additional option as a distraction free place to message your friends. The new service that lives at Messenger.com, will cater to people who want to just use Facebook as a place to keep in contact with friends and family but avoid the normal distractions of the site.
The new site is another move by Facebook to transform Messenger into a communication hub like WhatsApp, a Facebook owned company, or Line. Getting the billions of Facebook users to communicate using their Messenger is proving to be an easier task for Facebook than other messaging apps.
Tell us if you use Messenger to communicate with your friends or family, and if you’ll use the new Messenger website in the comments below!