Yesterday, Facebook announced the “transition to Messenger for messaging around the world.” We talked to Facebook representatives about what exactly this transition means and why it was made.
Today, social networks have turned into media platforms, networks within the Internet, where messaging, user interaction with each other becomes a secondary function. Content prevails here, not private communication. Perhaps this is the reason for the decline in the popularity of social networks among young people and the growing popularity of messengers. The central player in the mobile platform market could not ignore such changes. And he decided to go to extreme measures – to divide his functionality into, conditionally, private (Messenger) and public (Facebook). But this is our interpretation of events. Here’s what one of the Facebook representatives told us in a conversation.
Does switching to Messenger mean giving up the ability to receive and respond to messages in the framework of the Facebook mobile app?
Yes, this applies to iphone and android. But the messaging function remains on the desktop version, on the mobile version of Facebook (m.facebook.com ), also people will be able to use the regular Facebook mobile app for non-smartphones and older phone models.
Why did you decide to divide the functionality into two applications, and not leave one?
Look, Messenger will be used exclusively for messaging.
In this form, users will receive notifications about the need to download Messenger
We believe that Messenger is better and faster from the user’s point of view, and these are things that are really very important to people. We found out that people respond 20% faster when they use Messenger than the Facebook chat feature. Using Messenger, people send more photos, create more group chats, and share more content. Using Messenger for messaging, we will be able to remove the program code responsible for the messaging function in the main Facebook application, thereby reducing the size, simplifying and making the main application more convenient. Thanks to this, we will be able to work more efficiently on the content and functionality of Messenger, rather than constantly supporting two types of messaging.
Apart from messaging, what will Messenger allow you to do in the near future?
- New ways to send photos and videos, including selfies (the ability to send materials from the catalog of photos captured by the device’s camera, take selfies in photo and video mode);
- Group chats with family, friends, colleagues, etc.;
- Free voice calls, including international calls;
- Quick Voice messages;
- Stickers;
- Exchange of big Likes.
Unfortunately, the question of whether a game showcase will appear in Messenger, as in KakaoTalk, Line, VK and Tango, remained unanswered.