14 DAY TRIAL // Facebook is contemplating a rather strange move for a company so entrenched on the web, it's thinking about building a Windows client. Granted, it's only for chat and notifications, but the application is already available to selected testers.
If everything goes smoothly and Facebook determines that there is a real demand for the app, it will make it available to everyone.
"Messenger is a Windows is a new, trial application that lets you use Facebook without being on www.facebook.com," a Facebook Help Center page explains.
Facebook has confirmed the app, but hasn't provided much other details or even committed to launching it to everyone.
"We’re testing out a first version of the app with a small group of people. During this trial period, we plan on rolling out changes to the app and expect outages and periods of instability as we make improvement," Facebook warned.
Facebook has released chat clients before. It's Messenger app for mobile devices acts as a group messaging (SMS) app with added Facebook chat and support for Facebook messages.
The Windows version enables you to chat with Facebook friends, text-only for now, though voice and video chat could be added in the future.
It also serves as a client for notifications, with small popup notifications in the screen's corner as they come in, to keep you connected and coming back to the site.
One thing that is unique to the Facebook Messenger for Windows is that it includes the Ticker as well. Every time someone listens to something, reads an article or so on, you'll know, if you have the main window open.
At this stage, even Facebook is not sure that there is a demand for the Windows app. However, die-hard Facebook users will find it useful to be able to stay connected without keeping the browser tab open.
The notifications should come in handy as well. If it works, Facebook should be seeing an increase in engagement and activity, which is something that every website wants.