This change comes only a few months after Meta ended the standalone Messenger desktop apps for Windows and Mac, a move that had already signalled the direction, as Meta had been redirecting desktop users back to Facebook’s website rather than Messenger.com.
Software engineer and reverse engineer Alessandro Paluzzi was the first to spot the update. Meta has also started showing pop-up notifications to users on both the Messenger website and the Messenger app.
The change has upset many users. TechCrunch reported that people have complained on social media that they do not want to depend on Facebook’s website to chat on a computer again—especially those who have already deactivated their Facebook accounts.
Even if this gradual shutdown of Messenger platforms frustrates users, TechCrunch noted that, from a business perspective, it reduces Meta’s maintenance costs by leaving it with fewer platforms to support.
Messenger originally launched as “Facebook Chat” in 2008, before Facebook (now Meta) spun it out into a standalone app in 2011. For years, the company positioned Messenger as separate from Facebook, even removing chat from Facebook’s main mobile app in 2014 to push people to download Messenger. However, Meta shifted strategy in 2023, beginning to merge Messenger back into the Facebook app again.