Is this the end of Facebook Messenger?

More than ten years ago, Facebook released its Messenger as a standalone app. But the app could soon be history. Is Facebook Messenger obsolete?

In the social network business, Facebook Messenger could almost be described as an old hand. Because users have been able to download the separate app to their smartphones since 2011.

But while Facebook founder and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has proclaimed 2023 the “Year of Efficiency”, not only thousands of jobs are at stake. It could also be tight for the Messenger.

What are Facebook’s plans for Messenger?

The introduction of Facebook Messenger in 2011 may have upset some users. Back then, Facebook completely outsourced the chat function from the actual app, forcing users to download another app.

But the company now apparently wants to reverse this step. This is what Facebook boss Tom Alison announces in a blog post at.

Facebook is preparing to move Messenger

It should be easier to share content on Facebook without having to switch apps. “On Facebook, we’re seeing the private sharing of reels also grow rapidly,” says Alison.

Private conversations are an important way people share and connect on our apps.

Therefore, Facebook is testing the possibility that users can also access their inbox within the Facebook app. The group wants to “soon expand” these tests. So that could also mean that the function will eventually migrate back to the Facebook app entirely.

What’s behind the plans?

Behind all this is once again the fear of losing importance in the house of Facebook. Because the social network is struggling with stagnating user numbers and an aging user base. This is currently particularly true with regard to the Chinese short video app TikTok, which is particularly popular with children and young people.

Facebook also introduced a short video function a good year ago. Two years earlier, the so-called reels had already found their way onto sister Instagram.

“We believe that content is not just for consuming, but for starting a conversation and starting a message thread with your friends,” explains to Alison CNN.

I think what separates Facebook and Instagram from TikTok and others is the ability to start a conversation with friends with that content and have that kind of social dimension.

The redesign of the home feed and the introduction of Reels has also already paid off for Facebook. Because the group was able to in the fourth quarter of 2022 two billion daily active users report. A milestone for the social network. In the same quarter of the previous year, the number was still around 1.93 billion.

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