TikTok has built-in messaging options, so of course Meta is now bringing back the Messenger features that it foolishly removed from the blue app eight years ago.
- What’s happening? Meta has officially begun reintegrating Messenger into the mobile Facebook app after removing messaging features from it years ago.
- Why care? Messenger shouldn’t have been removed from Facebook in the first place. It took Meta eight years to realize its mistake but better late than never!
- What to do? Read the news in the Meta Newsroom.
Meta is adding Messenger back into the Facebook app
The announcement post highlights what’s next for Facebook, describing ways artificial intelligence will help improve its products, outlining upcoming new features for creators and monetization changes. With two billion daily active users, the blue app is finding it more and more challenging to find new users.
Bringing back the messaging functionality that was split into its own app back in 2014 should improve the experience for existing users who don’t want to switch apps every time they wish to send a message to a Facebook friend.
“We are testing the ability for people to access their Messenger inbox within the Facebook app,” Facebook head Tom Alison wrote in the post. “You’ll see us expand this testing soon.” Another reason Meta is making this change is probably TikTok, which has always had a built-in messaging feature.
Removing Messenger from the blue app was a mistake
The Messenger inbox is now available in the blue app for a small percentage of users. It’s currently unavailable in the mobile and desktop versions of the Facebook website, but that could change once Meta expands testing of the feature.
This isn’t the first time Meta has tested this feature.
App researcher Jane Manchun Wong reported in April 2019 that the company was testing messaging functionality in the Facebook app for iOS and Android. In that test, hitting the Message button in the Facebook app would take the user to the app’s Chats tab instead of automatically launching the standalone Messenger app.
“Over the coming year, we’ll build more ways to integrate messaging features in Facebook,” Alison wrote. “Ultimately, we want it to be easy and convenient for people to connect and share, whether in the Messenger app or directly within Facebook.”
Better late than never is all we’re saying.