Facebook disables chat service on mobile web

Jun 5, 2016 10:47 GMT  ·  By

A while ago, Facebook removed instant messages from the main application and forced its users to download the Messenger app if they wanted to chat with friends. Now, it seems that the company is doing a similar thing, giving users no choice but to download Messenger from the Play Store if they want to continue sending messages.

Users who accessed their Facebook accounts from mobile browsers have received a message stating that “Your conversations are moving to Messenger." After the message is displayed, they are instantly redirected to the Google Play download page for Facebook’s Messenger application.

Even though they could tap back and access conversations on Facebook, the message persisted in appearing, thus forcing users to download the messaging application. The message doesn’t seem to show up for absolutely all users, but many have encountered this new change.

Facebook will also bring end-to-end encryption to Messenger

The motivation behind this new move at Facebook seems to be quite clear. The social networking giant is in charge of two of the most popular messaging services in the world, one of which is obviously WhatsApp. Therefore, the company intends to separate its services, leaving the main Facebook app for browsing and posting content while Messenger should be solely for chatting in groups and with friends.

Messenger does provide some additional functionality, as compared to Facebook’s main app, but there’s a chance that some people might not want to have two separate applications for the same service on their devices. Of course, there’s the matter of battery drainage on mobile devices and the drag of switching from one application to another.

However, this is not the only change that Facebook intends to bring to its platform. A few days ago, we reported that Facebook planned to bring end-to-end encryption so that messages between users would be more secure. The feature would be optional and could be disabled at any time. End-to-end encryption is expected to reach Facebook Messenger in the coming months.