14 DAY TRIAL // Users of the Windows version of Facebook Messenger are being prompted that the service will no longer be supported starting with March 3, 2014.
The social network doesn’t give any details at all about the reasons of the shutdown, but it looks like starting on Monday, the feature will no longer be available for users.
“We’re sorry, but we can no longer support Facebook Messenger for Windows, and it will stop working on March 3, 2014,” states a message that’s displayed at the top of the app.
The note continues with Facebook expressing its appreciation of users, before it redirects them to the Facebook homepage where the messenger feature is integrated. In fact, another redirect link leads to the network’s “Messages” page on the “Facebook Help Center,” which doesn’t really provide many details for users of the app.
It’s not exactly a surprise that Facebook is killing the Windows tool, since the installer is nowhere to be found on the company’s site and the page about Facebook Messenger only mentions the Android and iOS version, with no word about a Windows alternative.
The Facebook Messenger for Windows app was released in March 2012 and it hasn’t been updated since spring 2013. The Mac version for the Messenger was awaited by users, but the company never really did anything on the matter.
This isn’t the first time Facebook has launched a tool only to let it run with very little support and it will most likely not be the last either. The social network has a tendency to build various apps on a whim and then ignore them completely until they eventually die out.
While the Windows version of Messenger was certainly not as popular as its Android and iOS counterparts, that can be blamed on the company since it didn’t exactly go to much effort to market it.
Many users are complaining about the decision, especially since there’s been no timely announcement. In fact, this seems hurried given the short notice.
Some users claim that a huge amount of their Facebook interaction happened via the Windows app, preferring to use the social network for messaging purposes, rather than the entire experience.
This may be, in fact, while Facebook is shutting it down and redirecting users towards the homepage. Only using an app doesn’t get Facebook any page traffic, views and, ultimately, advertising money, which is incredibly important for a company that doesn’t charge users anything and has limited possibilities to attract revenue.
