Facebook’s Messenger platform is easy to build on and already includes a wealth of rich features. Many out there, however, don’t use it despite having Facebook and sending out messages. Whether this is because they prefer not to be interrupted by notifications when they get a message, they use low-power phones that can’t run Messenger well or they simply don’t want to have Facebook’s apps, well-known battery and resource hogs, on their devices. Whatever the reason, most of these users turn to Facebook’s mobile website or third party apps, such as Slimsocial. Those who use Facebook’s mobile website, however, may soon find themselves unable to send and receive messages, according to notifications that many users are getting upon entering the messages area of the Facebook mobile site.
The notification says, “Your conversations are moving to Messenger”, and urges the user to download the Messenger app. While users can simply get past the notification for now, that won’t be the case in the near future. While those in the Android sphere may end up mildly annoyed to have an unwanted app for one function or may simply download a third-party app, if they still support messaging, or begin browsing on the desktop site via an option in their browser, not everybody has this option, especially outside of the Android sphere. Those who still use feature phones or use specialty browsers and apps with data-saving features will find the change quite a hindrance, as will those with phones not powerful enough to run the desktop website or the app.
The social media giant is looking to converge all of its users’ messages onto a single platform to provide the “best experience” possible to everybody. For the crop of users that this change won’t sit very well with, options can be quite limited; this move could even lead to a small migration to other services, such as Google+ and Twitter. As for users of third party apps, luck may be just as slim; most apps have simply functioned as a portal, with various options and extra features, to Facebook’s mobile site, ever since Facebook removed an API used by many third-party mobile apps back in 2013, though some have found ways around it. The move will, of course, see its fair share of previous holdouts adopting Messenger, but it’s likely that the change will be divisive indeed for current Facebook users.