Nine years after Facebook removed the Messenger functionality from its mobile app, the company is reintegrating the messaging feature with its main app in an apparent effort to make it more convenient for users to interact with their friends and family. Facebook separated the two apps in 2014, ostensibly to develop Messenger as the 'best' mobile messaging application and avoid confusion from having two separate messaging experiences. However, the separation was controversial, and users reacted angrily against the company's decision.
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In a blog post, Facebook head Tom Alison said that the company is planning to once again incorporate the Messenger app into Facebook, and is already testing the new combined experience with some users. According to Alison, the change will make it easier and more convenient for Facebook users to message their friends and share content without having to use the Messenger app separately. Alison also said that the combined experience will soon be rolled out to more people, although he didn't offer an ETA for that.
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Messenger Returning To The Facebook Mobile App
The move to integrate Messenger with the main Facebook app is a good one, and something that should have happened a long time ago. As explained by Alison himself, the change will make it easier for people to "share what they discover on Facebook via messaging, when, where and how it suits their needs, without needing to switch to another app."
Apart from convenience of having the messaging service baked into Facebook, having one less app on the phone also has some real-life benefits. Installing too many apps can not only slow down a phone in the long run, it can also have a negative impact on battery life, making it imperative for smartphone users to ensure that they install as few apps on their device as possible.
The integrated messaging experience is also similar to how TikTok allows users share videos with their friends through a built-in direct messaging service, meaning the new feature will also help Facebook keep up with its newer rival. Having feature parity with TikTok is massively important for Facebook, which has been struggling to match the popularity of the Chinese upstart in recent years. While Facebook remains the world's largest social media platform by far, it is stuck with a stangnant and aging user base, even as TikTok continues to grab the hearts and minds of the millenial and Gen-Z crowd.
The new combined experience will also likely enable folks to send messaages to Instagram users from the Facebook app, which would be especially helpful for people who have their Facebook and Instagram accounts linked. For those who have kept their Facebook and Instagram accounts separate, it's unclear if they will be able to still message Instagram users using their Facebook app after the integration with Messenger.
