<story><title>Facebook disabling messaging in its mobile web app to push people to Messenger</title><url>http://techcrunch.com/2016/06/03/facebook-is-disabling-messaging-in-its-mobile-web-app-to-push-people-to-messenger/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>galdosdi</author><text>This is kind of convenient; it gives me one more excuse not to use facebook. A few days ago I got the usual notification email that somebody had sent me a message on FB. Clicking is a low barrier so I clicked, curiously. Then I instead got the &amp;quot;No, now you have to install Messenger app&amp;quot; screen. That was enough of a barrier that I said &amp;quot;oh forget it, who cares, anybody who knows me would know better than to send me an FB message anyway, if it matters they&amp;#x27;ll get in touch via a &amp;#x27;real&amp;#x27; communications medium like email, text, or phone&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;So sending me an FB message is now a black hole and I&amp;#x27;m fine with that. FB&amp;#x27;s decision just pushed me and all other similar users (users that already are on the fringes of FB usage, using it only rarely) even further away.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m not sure if that&amp;#x27;s a bad thing or good thing for them, since honestly I don&amp;#x27;t know what FB could do alternately to win back people in my &amp;quot;barely use FB&amp;quot; demographic, and from comments here it does seem like people who actually use FB regularly did not share my reaction (&amp;quot;screw it then&amp;quot;) and instead felt forced to install the app and move on with their lives.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>gcr</author><text>I see it the opposite way. Using Messenge could give you a great way to use facebook without subjecting yourself to the News Feed Giant Tentacled Monster.&lt;p&gt;Why not use Messenger without Facebook?&lt;p&gt;My reason not to use Facebook was because it trivializes friendships. With Facebook, I wouldn&amp;#x27;t  have to go out of my way to be &amp;quot;friends&amp;quot; with someone, so the relationship would be less meaningful. But Messenger doesn&amp;#x27;t share that property --- you have to bother to click on someone&amp;#x27;s name and you have to bother to think up a good message to send them. That means it&amp;#x27;s no worse than any other IM client, with the strong advantage that your real-world friends already use it. You get to keep up with them in the way you want to, and they get to keep up with you in the way they want to.&lt;p&gt;Best of both worlds?</text></comment>
<story><title>Facebook disabling messaging in its mobile web app to push people to Messenger</title><url>http://techcrunch.com/2016/06/03/facebook-is-disabling-messaging-in-its-mobile-web-app-to-push-people-to-messenger/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>galdosdi</author><text>This is kind of convenient; it gives me one more excuse not to use facebook. A few days ago I got the usual notification email that somebody had sent me a message on FB. Clicking is a low barrier so I clicked, curiously. Then I instead got the &amp;quot;No, now you have to install Messenger app&amp;quot; screen. That was enough of a barrier that I said &amp;quot;oh forget it, who cares, anybody who knows me would know better than to send me an FB message anyway, if it matters they&amp;#x27;ll get in touch via a &amp;#x27;real&amp;#x27; communications medium like email, text, or phone&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;So sending me an FB message is now a black hole and I&amp;#x27;m fine with that. FB&amp;#x27;s decision just pushed me and all other similar users (users that already are on the fringes of FB usage, using it only rarely) even further away.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m not sure if that&amp;#x27;s a bad thing or good thing for them, since honestly I don&amp;#x27;t know what FB could do alternately to win back people in my &amp;quot;barely use FB&amp;quot; demographic, and from comments here it does seem like people who actually use FB regularly did not share my reaction (&amp;quot;screw it then&amp;quot;) and instead felt forced to install the app and move on with their lives.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>rtpg</author><text>The counterpoint is that I know heavy FB users (myself included) who have opted to just install Messenger on their phones, essentially being able to get rid of FB on the phone, to limit distractions but keep the nice communication&lt;p&gt;While I kinda get removing it from the mobile app, I don&amp;#x27;t really know what the rationale is for getting rid of mobile web chat though. It&amp;#x27;s not like it&amp;#x27;s disappearing from the desktop web app anytime soon, right?&lt;p&gt;right?</text></comment>