Facebook really wants you to use its messaging app, and pretty soon its going to force its users to do it.
This week, the company announced that it would be phasing out the private message function from its main Facebook mobile app, in an effort to get people to use its dedicated messaging app to send messages. In other words, use Facebook for public communication, and Facebook Messenger for private communication.
The theory behind the split is that it’ll unclutter the current Facebook mobile app and allow developers to create a better private messaging product. But crucially, it’ll give Facebook more real estate on your phone and an opportunity for it to create an additional, separate revenue stream.
Keep in mind, however, that Facebook already owns Whatsapp, possibly the biggest messaging app in the world. Why would it spend so much time and effort developing its own product when it’s already got a far more popular platform under its ownership? One plausible explanation is that Facebook is trying to get users used to the concept of Facebook Messenger as a standalone app, before it assimilates Whatsapp completely under that brand name. Or it intends to just own as many apps as possible on a user’s mobile screen so it makes sense to develop it’s own messaging system, which can be used for all Facebook contacts, instead of the hyper-local nature of Whatsapp contacts.
