14 DAY TRIAL // Facebook and Messenger are currently two of the most popular apps on mobile platforms, and Windows phones make no exception, as plenty of users are currently running them on their Windows 10 Mobile devices.
And yet, this could change very soon, as Facebook appears to be implementing an update that might make the official Facebook app and Messenger compatible only with high-end Windows phones.
The latest update changed the minimum RAM requirement to 2 GB, which means that an important share of Windows phones would not be able to run it if the company indeed makes this mandatory.
Still available for download for everyone
For the moment, both Facebook and Messenger apps can still be downloaded and installed on devices with less than 2 GB RAM, but users cannot post reviews in the Windows Store. This could be an indication that the change in requirements is actually an error and that Facebook will maintain support even for phones with 1 GB RAM.
Although flagships are supposed to be able to run the Facebook app quite smoothly, it’s not a secret that it has often become super slow, no matter if we’re talking about high-end phones or mid-range models.
It happened several times on our Lumia 950 XL models here at Softpedia for Facebook to load slowly and then crash after a few minutes, and even though updates were supposed to fix this kind of problems, they did not. At first glance, it seems like RAM isn’t the problem, but Facebook’s optimizations, so with a little work, the app can continue working smoothly on all Windows phones and not just on flagships.
But if this change indeed comes into effect and only high-end Windows phones can run Facebook, it would become another major blow for Microsoft’s mobile platform, which is losing developers and users anyway during this whole time.
Users have been waiting for the official Facebook app for a long time, and it goes without saying that they should remain available for everyone with a Windows phone.