Categories: Mobile

Facebook launches standalone Android and iPhone messaging app

Facebook has just launched a standalone messaging app, Facebook Messenger, for Android and iOS devices. The app allows Facebook users to message friends individually or by group, send photos and share location information.

Facebook Messenger is a direct descendant of Beluga, a group messaging service that Facebook acquired in March of this year, and is the first standalone app from the social network. This app could signal the start of an emerging trend as Facebook is also rumoured to be working on a standalone photo sharing app.

With Facebook Messenger app-to-app messages are delivered via push notifications. If the receiving user does not have Facebook Messenger, the update is delivered via Facebook Chat, Facebook Messages or by good old-fashioned SMS instead.

The app imports all your existing conversations on Facebook Messages. New conversations are started by adding one or more Facebook friends or phone numbers from your list of phone contacts. The app won’t quite replace your phone’s basic SMS application just yet however, at least not until a sizable portion of the current 750 million active Facebook users download it first.

The app is currently not available in Ireland but we’re expecting it within the next few hours.

Albizu Garcia

Albizu Garcia is the Co-Founder and CEO of Gain -- a marketing technology company that automates the social media and content publishing workflow for agencies and social media managers, their clients and anyone working in teams.

View Comments

Recent Posts

OpenAI submitted models to the hardest math test yet for AI

OpenAI published its proof attempts on February 14 for First Proof, a challenge put together…

1 day ago

The hidden costs of sedentary work: Why prevention starts at your desk

We all know that a sedentary lifestyle is harmful to our health. But recent studies…

1 day ago

Solving the headache of migrating cloud-based mailboxes for the enterprise

As organizations increasingly operate across hybrid and cloud-based email systems, migrating enterprise mailboxes has become…

1 day ago

Digital ID, programmable money pave way for ‘dystopian hellhole, horrific totalitarian regimes’: ESN at European Parliament

Digital ID, programmable money like Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), and AI are paving the…

3 days ago

Elon Musk says tariffs make solar artificially expensive in the U.S. But there is much more at play: Op-ed

Earlier this year, Elon Musk was direct about what comes next for the global economy:…

4 days ago

Britive Unified PAM Integrates with New Extended Plan for AWS Security Hub

Britive, provider of a unified privileged access management (PAM) platform, today announced its unified PAM…

4 days ago