7 ms·

Facebook Messenger 3.0

43 points by mvbrasil 13y ago

senthilnayagam 13y ago
so facebook saved 3billion dollars and rolled out a snapchat clone in 30 days, it can claim a billion user in next 60 days
- killwhitey 13y ago
  If you're talking about Poke, no one uses it. It hasn't been updated for iOS7, and most likely never will. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/facebook-poke/id588594730?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/facebook-poke/id588594730?mt...
  - senthilnayagam 13y ago
    check the new Facebook messenger, with sms verification, send message to your contacts on phone and a lot more. same as whatsapp and snapchat does
gailees 13y ago
This is amazing. Now if only they took over email too. Facebook should completely pivot into an identification and messaging platform.
- chid 13y ago
  They do have email.
- BaconJuice 13y ago
  strong troll?
  - salemh 13y ago
    Sarcasm I imagine. http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jul/02/business/la-fi-tn-facebook-email-more-problems-20120702 http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jul/02/business/la-fi-tn-fa... The email switch didn't work out so well.
antonius 13y ago
Sleek, simple UI. Too bad no Windows Phone release just yet.
rlu 13y ago
It's interesting how they call it texting rather than messaging. I almost thought for a second they really meant SMS.
- ConceitedCode 13y ago
  Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it is more than just messaging and might include SMS. From the Play store description, "Not just for Facebook friends: Now you can message people in your phone book. And it's easy to add new contacts—just enter a phone number.". The android app also requires permission to edit/create SMS messages and make phone calls. If so, does this mean we can be able to send an SMS from facebook now or just from our phones? It's worth noting that the screenshot from the android phone also shows you missed calls.
  - rlu 13y ago
    I assume (but don't know!) that the "find people by entering their phone number" feature simply tries to find Facebook users with lax enough privacy settings such that (a) they expose their phone numbers to maybe friends or friends and (b) they allow non-friends to message them. Otherwise I feel like they would phrase it as "message people who aren't on Facebook!" What Android screenshot are you looking at that makes you think it shows missed calls? I see two icons: a sort of bolt and a facebook "f". I think that the bolt means the user is using "Messenger" (i.e. fb on mobile) whereas the fb "f" means facebook.com.
    - ConceitedCode 13y ago
      Can anyone confirm or deny? I no longer have a facebook account and don't want one so I can't check. The first android screenshot on the linked page, shows that there is 1 missed call from Mac Tyler. Just worth noting, not sure if it means anything but it is interesting.
    - depoll 13y ago
      This seems to answer the question: https://www.facebook.com/help/458736564237313 https://www.facebook.com/help/458736564237313
mentos 13y ago
>'say it better with stickers' Can't believe how much money is to be had from selling stickers in messaging apps
- brianbreslin 13y ago
  One of those asian messaging app companies makes 20%+ of their revenue from stickers (tens of millions of $ a month)
  - chid 13y ago
    Source: http://thenextweb.com/apps/2013/08/08/line-corp-brings-in-132m-of-revenue-in-q2-2013-as-its-messaging-app-contributes-76/ http://thenextweb.com/apps/2013/08/08/line-corp-brings-in-13...
mikelbring 13y ago
I just prefer to use the FB app it self. When I was using the Messenger app, I would get a notification from Messenger and the FB app, it got rather annoying.
- jsmeaton 13y ago
  Agreed, I had to remove messenger because of that - it annoyed me that much.
- Encosia 13y ago
  The nice thing I've found about using the Messenger app is that it seems to put a lot less strain on my battery, especially after I disabled location services for the Messenger app. I like being able to disable location services in Messenger, but leave it enabled in Facebook. I don't really care if my location is tied to IMs (and often prefer that it's not), but it's usually nice for Facebook status/image posts that are essentially check-ins on the go.
- fournm 13y ago
  I didn't, but making it a requirement to enter your phone number to use the app with no mentions of what the privacy controls for people being able to message you with just your phone number are made the new app a quick uninstall. Facebook, you've had enough privacy problems in the past, is it really that hard to outline what's going on here or even just not require the number? I've heard that GVoice numbers don't work, as well, which just makes it even worse.
spicyj 13y ago
The iOS release notes (on https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/facebook-messenger/id454638411?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/facebook-messenger/id4546384...) say: "Not just for Facebook friends: Now you can message people in your phone book. And it's easy to add new contacts—just enter a phone number." so perhaps it does include an SMS bridge.
- FiloSottile 13y ago
  Just checked. No SMS bridge, just a WhatsApp-like phone numbers based contacts system. This means you can message anyone who uses Messenger if you have his phone number.
brianbreslin 13y ago
So this is a shot across the bow at WhatsApp and kik and MessageMe right? Those apps are incredibly popular in developing nations.
- snogglethorpe 13y ago
  ... and LINE, and Kakaotalk, and ... The thing is that many of these apps are both pretty good, and have insane market penetration... It's hard to see why anybody would switch to a FB app that's very likely worse if they're already using something else (so all their contacts are there).
  - w1ntermute 13y ago
    Yeah, if Poke couldn't take down Snapchat, then I don't know what hope this has of displacing those other apps.
    - brianbreslin 13y ago
      They didn't really throw much weight behind Poke. They also had the fb camera app which was a competitor to instagram if you recall. Poke I thought was a weekend project.
  - aianus 13y ago
    If they're on Facebook all their contacts will be on Facebook Messenger. Does Facebook have poor market penetration in Asia?
    - snogglethorpe 13y ago
      I do not have numbers, but while a fair number of people use FB in Japan, it's far from the juggernaut it is in the U.S. According to Wikipedia, Japan has about 17 million FB users, Korea about 10 million, and China only about 0.6 million! LINE, in the meantime, just celebrated its 300 millionth user, and its user base is concentrated in Asian countries.
- 13y ago
natesm 13y ago
If you install this, the messaging tab in the primary Facebook app now just switches you to the Messenger app. What a weird choice. I decided to uninstall Messenger, I like being able to chat while browsing other Facebook pages.
- chid 13y ago
  Just tested, this happens on iOS. Not sure about Android. I definitely agree with you. Pressing back brings you back into the standard Facebook app.
  - nwh 13y ago
    That's extremely strange behaviour. I can't imagine that sticking around in the long term. Switching views takes milliseconds, switching apps take much longer.
  - mwilcox 13y ago
    In-app messaging still working as normal on my Nexus 4.
FiloSottile 13y ago
Note: I think the app is syncing your address book with FB servers.
- RKearney 13y ago
  Only if you opt-in to it. When you launch the app you're prompted to decide if you want to sync your contact list so the app can be used to contact non-Facebook friends. It's not doing it without your explicit approval.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
kfk 13y ago
I hate the direction FB is going with the messaging system. It doesn't work well when you try to send anything longer than a few words. Send an email you might say, many people don't read emails as much as they read FB. Sad but true. /rant
adambratt 13y ago
To those complaining about this, you're not the target market. I was on a train from Chicago to Detroit a week ago and there was a group of about 10 high schoolers sitting behind me. We got talking about iPhone apps and I asked what was popular. They all agreed Facebook was not as cool anymore and confessed to being addicted to messaging apps that their parents couldn't check up on like they could with texts. Snapchat, Kik, and Whatsapp were among those mentioned. It's interesting because if you look at these apps in the App Store, the screenshots are definitely targeting that age demographic as well. Facebook is losing ground fast for this age group. The group that has grown up using Facebook and is now moving on to other mediums. This release looks very promising in helping to win back that interest.
- eldude 13y ago
  Facebook isn't just losing ground to a specific demographic, they're losing centrality and relevance in a market they defined. While Facebook may be pervasive, it's pervasive in the way that Microsoft Office was in an era of Macs and Google Apps 2 years ago; We all kept a copy of Word installed for when someone emailed us a .doc or .ppt file. Would love to grab lunch or discuss further where this is all headed from a broader market and societal standpoint, for anyone in the Bay Area.
  - cweiss 13y ago
    Wouldn't the better analogy be "pervasive in the way MySpace was X years ago and America Online was, X years before that"? The question is, what's going to replace it? The "instant messaging" market is too fragmented right now (though one could argue the social network space was just as fragmented before FB exploded). SMS has no fundamental single 'owner' to drive change/feature improvements.
    - eldude 13y ago
      You're missing the distinction; Nobody kept their MySpace around or created a new one once is was replaced because it was unnecessary. You could say it's like AOL Instant Messenger, but if anything that's a weaker analogy since nothing really replaced it so much as IM became a commodity.
mau 13y ago
What a coincidence. I just had a conversation with a friend about how FB failed with its Messenger to get the users of Whatsapp & other similar apps. Apparently they know this and are trying to improve it. Same discussion applies to Skype that was never able to make a fast user experience on mobile: every update of Skype on my iPhone seem to slow down the app and make it more crash friendly...
epeus 13y ago
The android one has an iOS 7 aesthetic that feels really odd on Android. Also, Google Hangouts just absorbed actual SMS on Android, so that will be interesting.
MRSallee 13y ago
Based on the App Store screenshots, there's basically no Facebook branding. Just colors and a like button. Even the app icon doesn't say Facebook. Interesting.
- MasterScrat 13y ago
  Indeed... When I saw the updated icon on my home screen I wondered for a minute what this thing was.
albeec13 13y ago
This appears to be a reaction to Google Hangouts more than anything else. From the Play Store description for Facebook Messenger, it sounds like you can indeed send messages to friends based on their phone number, but it does not appear to be via SMS. It's more similar to something like Snapchat, where it uses your phonebook to find people who have registered their phone numbers with the app. Furthermore, last week, information leaked regarding Facebook dropping SMS support due to lack of uptake. One source for this: http://thenextweb.com/apps/2013/10/29/facebook-testing-new-messenger-app-android-drops-sms-support/ http://thenextweb.com/apps/2013/10/29/facebook-testing-new-m... Long story short, this appears to be a data-only messaging app, not unlike pre-SMS Hangouts or some of the other apps people in this thread have mentioned (Kik, Whatsapp, etc.).
superchink 13y ago
Is anyone else still seeing the old UI? I even tried removing and re-installing. On iOS.
- superchink 13y ago
  Nevermind… waited a couple minutes, and the update showed up. Strange though, that a fresh install installed the old version…
laglad 13y ago
Does anyone know how to remove the reminder to turn on notifications? Details: - Using latest iOS - All notifications are off in iPhone's settings - Every time I switch to the app, a full page message reminds me to turn on notifications (even just swiping to Control Center reproduces the full page message. Aggressive!) - In the Facebook messenger settings, there are only 2 options: to "Turn off until 8:00am" or "Turn off for 1h". If this is intentional (or rather if it persists past today), Facebook just lost the last stronghold they had on me. I use them for nothing but messaging. And the one caveat I have for using them is that I only check in when the thought occurs to me not as I'm pinged. If intentional (speculation coming), I bet they've run the engagement #s to show it makes sense. But this is a bad principle that is pretty restrictive for a company at their scale. They've pretty much increased the cost of cognitive cost of using their app. The facebook messenger user in me is hoping this is a feature that times out after the first day of installs. Otherwise goodbye Zuck.

43 points by mvbrasil 13y ago

so facebook saved 3billion dollars and rolled out a snapchat clone in 30 days, it can claim a billion user in next 60 days

killwhitey 13y ago
If you're talking about Poke, no one uses it. It hasn't been updated for iOS7, and most likely never will. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/facebook-poke/id588594730?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/facebook-poke/id588594730?mt...
- senthilnayagam 13y ago
  check the new Facebook messenger, with sms verification, send message to your contacts on phone and a lot more. same as whatsapp and snapchat does

gailees 13y ago

This is amazing. Now if only they took over email too. Facebook should completely pivot into an identification and messaging platform.

chid 13y ago
They do have email.
BaconJuice 13y ago
strong troll?
- salemh 13y ago
  Sarcasm I imagine. http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jul/02/business/la-fi-tn-facebook-email-more-problems-20120702 http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jul/02/business/la-fi-tn-fa... The email switch didn't work out so well.

antonius 13y ago

Sleek, simple UI. Too bad no Windows Phone release just yet.

rlu 13y ago

It's interesting how they call it texting rather than messaging. I almost thought for a second they really meant SMS.

ConceitedCode 13y ago
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it is more than just messaging and might include SMS. From the Play store description, "Not just for Facebook friends: Now you can message people in your phone book. And it's easy to add new contacts—just enter a phone number.". The android app also requires permission to edit/create SMS messages and make phone calls. If so, does this mean we can be able to send an SMS from facebook now or just from our phones? It's worth noting that the screenshot from the android phone also shows you missed calls.
- rlu 13y ago
  I assume (but don't know!) that the "find people by entering their phone number" feature simply tries to find Facebook users with lax enough privacy settings such that (a) they expose their phone numbers to maybe friends or friends and (b) they allow non-friends to message them. Otherwise I feel like they would phrase it as "message people who aren't on Facebook!" What Android screenshot are you looking at that makes you think it shows missed calls? I see two icons: a sort of bolt and a facebook "f". I think that the bolt means the user is using "Messenger" (i.e. fb on mobile) whereas the fb "f" means facebook.com.
  - ConceitedCode 13y ago
    Can anyone confirm or deny? I no longer have a facebook account and don't want one so I can't check. The first android screenshot on the linked page, shows that there is 1 missed call from Mac Tyler. Just worth noting, not sure if it means anything but it is interesting.
  - depoll 13y ago
    This seems to answer the question: https://www.facebook.com/help/458736564237313 https://www.facebook.com/help/458736564237313

mentos 13y ago

>'say it better with stickers' Can't believe how much money is to be had from selling stickers in messaging apps

brianbreslin 13y ago
One of those asian messaging app companies makes 20%+ of their revenue from stickers (tens of millions of $ a month)
- chid 13y ago
  Source: http://thenextweb.com/apps/2013/08/08/line-corp-brings-in-132m-of-revenue-in-q2-2013-as-its-messaging-app-contributes-76/ http://thenextweb.com/apps/2013/08/08/line-corp-brings-in-13...

mikelbring 13y ago

I just prefer to use the FB app it self. When I was using the Messenger app, I would get a notification from Messenger and the FB app, it got rather annoying.

jsmeaton 13y ago
Agreed, I had to remove messenger because of that - it annoyed me that much.
Encosia 13y ago
The nice thing I've found about using the Messenger app is that it seems to put a lot less strain on my battery, especially after I disabled location services for the Messenger app. I like being able to disable location services in Messenger, but leave it enabled in Facebook. I don't really care if my location is tied to IMs (and often prefer that it's not), but it's usually nice for Facebook status/image posts that are essentially check-ins on the go.
fournm 13y ago
I didn't, but making it a requirement to enter your phone number to use the app with no mentions of what the privacy controls for people being able to message you with just your phone number are made the new app a quick uninstall. Facebook, you've had enough privacy problems in the past, is it really that hard to outline what's going on here or even just not require the number? I've heard that GVoice numbers don't work, as well, which just makes it even worse.

spicyj 13y ago

The iOS release notes (on https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/facebook-messenger/id454638411?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/facebook-messenger/id4546384...) say: "Not just for Facebook friends: Now you can message people in your phone book. And it's easy to add new contacts—just enter a phone number." so perhaps it does include an SMS bridge.

FiloSottile 13y ago
Just checked. No SMS bridge, just a WhatsApp-like phone numbers based contacts system. This means you can message anyone who uses Messenger if you have his phone number.

brianbreslin 13y ago

So this is a shot across the bow at WhatsApp and kik and MessageMe right? Those apps are incredibly popular in developing nations.

snogglethorpe 13y ago
... and LINE, and Kakaotalk, and ... The thing is that many of these apps are both pretty good, and have insane market penetration... It's hard to see why anybody would switch to a FB app that's very likely worse if they're already using something else (so all their contacts are there).
- w1ntermute 13y ago
  Yeah, if Poke couldn't take down Snapchat, then I don't know what hope this has of displacing those other apps.
  - brianbreslin 13y ago
    They didn't really throw much weight behind Poke. They also had the fb camera app which was a competitor to instagram if you recall. Poke I thought was a weekend project.
- aianus 13y ago
  If they're on Facebook all their contacts will be on Facebook Messenger. Does Facebook have poor market penetration in Asia?
  - snogglethorpe 13y ago
    I do not have numbers, but while a fair number of people use FB in Japan, it's far from the juggernaut it is in the U.S. According to Wikipedia, Japan has about 17 million FB users, Korea about 10 million, and China only about 0.6 million! LINE, in the meantime, just celebrated its 300 millionth user, and its user base is concentrated in Asian countries.
13y ago

natesm 13y ago

If you install this, the messaging tab in the primary Facebook app now just switches you to the Messenger app. What a weird choice. I decided to uninstall Messenger, I like being able to chat while browsing other Facebook pages.

chid 13y ago
Just tested, this happens on iOS. Not sure about Android. I definitely agree with you. Pressing back brings you back into the standard Facebook app.
- nwh 13y ago
  That's extremely strange behaviour. I can't imagine that sticking around in the long term. Switching views takes milliseconds, switching apps take much longer.
- mwilcox 13y ago
  In-app messaging still working as normal on my Nexus 4.

FiloSottile 13y ago

Note: I think the app is syncing your address book with FB servers.

RKearney 13y ago
Only if you opt-in to it. When you launch the app you're prompted to decide if you want to sync your contact list so the app can be used to contact non-Facebook friends. It's not doing it without your explicit approval.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

kfk 13y ago

I hate the direction FB is going with the messaging system. It doesn't work well when you try to send anything longer than a few words. Send an email you might say, many people don't read emails as much as they read FB. Sad but true. /rant

adambratt 13y ago

To those complaining about this, you're not the target market. I was on a train from Chicago to Detroit a week ago and there was a group of about 10 high schoolers sitting behind me. We got talking about iPhone apps and I asked what was popular. They all agreed Facebook was not as cool anymore and confessed to being addicted to messaging apps that their parents couldn't check up on like they could with texts. Snapchat, Kik, and Whatsapp were among those mentioned. It's interesting because if you look at these apps in the App Store, the screenshots are definitely targeting that age demographic as well. Facebook is losing ground fast for this age group. The group that has grown up using Facebook and is now moving on to other mediums. This release looks very promising in helping to win back that interest.

eldude 13y ago
Facebook isn't just losing ground to a specific demographic, they're losing centrality and relevance in a market they defined. While Facebook may be pervasive, it's pervasive in the way that Microsoft Office was in an era of Macs and Google Apps 2 years ago; We all kept a copy of Word installed for when someone emailed us a .doc or .ppt file. Would love to grab lunch or discuss further where this is all headed from a broader market and societal standpoint, for anyone in the Bay Area.
- cweiss 13y ago
  Wouldn't the better analogy be "pervasive in the way MySpace was X years ago and America Online was, X years before that"? The question is, what's going to replace it? The "instant messaging" market is too fragmented right now (though one could argue the social network space was just as fragmented before FB exploded). SMS has no fundamental single 'owner' to drive change/feature improvements.
  - eldude 13y ago
    You're missing the distinction; Nobody kept their MySpace around or created a new one once is was replaced because it was unnecessary. You could say it's like AOL Instant Messenger, but if anything that's a weaker analogy since nothing really replaced it so much as IM became a commodity.

mau 13y ago

What a coincidence. I just had a conversation with a friend about how FB failed with its Messenger to get the users of Whatsapp & other similar apps. Apparently they know this and are trying to improve it. Same discussion applies to Skype that was never able to make a fast user experience on mobile: every update of Skype on my iPhone seem to slow down the app and make it more crash friendly...

epeus 13y ago

The android one has an iOS 7 aesthetic that feels really odd on Android. Also, Google Hangouts just absorbed actual SMS on Android, so that will be interesting.

MRSallee 13y ago

Based on the App Store screenshots, there's basically no Facebook branding. Just colors and a like button. Even the app icon doesn't say Facebook. Interesting.

MasterScrat 13y ago
Indeed... When I saw the updated icon on my home screen I wondered for a minute what this thing was.

albeec13 13y ago

This appears to be a reaction to Google Hangouts more than anything else. From the Play Store description for Facebook Messenger, it sounds like you can indeed send messages to friends based on their phone number, but it does not appear to be via SMS. It's more similar to something like Snapchat, where it uses your phonebook to find people who have registered their phone numbers with the app. Furthermore, last week, information leaked regarding Facebook dropping SMS support due to lack of uptake. One source for this: http://thenextweb.com/apps/2013/10/29/facebook-testing-new-messenger-app-android-drops-sms-support/ http://thenextweb.com/apps/2013/10/29/facebook-testing-new-m... Long story short, this appears to be a data-only messaging app, not unlike pre-SMS Hangouts or some of the other apps people in this thread have mentioned (Kik, Whatsapp, etc.).

superchink 13y ago

Is anyone else still seeing the old UI? I even tried removing and re-installing. On iOS.

superchink 13y ago
Nevermind… waited a couple minutes, and the update showed up. Strange though, that a fresh install installed the old version…

laglad 13y ago

Does anyone know how to remove the reminder to turn on notifications? Details: - Using latest iOS - All notifications are off in iPhone's settings - Every time I switch to the app, a full page message reminds me to turn on notifications (even just swiping to Control Center reproduces the full page message. Aggressive!) - In the Facebook messenger settings, there are only 2 options: to "Turn off until 8:00am" or "Turn off for 1h". If this is intentional (or rather if it persists past today), Facebook just lost the last stronghold they had on me. I use them for nothing but messaging. And the one caveat I have for using them is that I only check in when the thought occurs to me not as I'm pinged. If intentional (speculation coming), I bet they've run the engagement #s to show it makes sense. But this is a bad principle that is pretty restrictive for a company at their scale. They've pretty much increased the cost of cognitive cost of using their app. The facebook messenger user in me is hoping this is a feature that times out after the first day of installs. Otherwise goodbye Zuck.