The new free service at Messenger.com launched this week
Facebook has launched a free, standalone messaging service, Messenger.com, which lets PC users message people on their phones.
Much like Facebook's existing Messenger app, it lets users send short
text messages, without paying the mobile network's fee for SMS
messages.The service is entirely free, and accessible from any internet browser - whether on a phone or a tablet - using a Facebook login.
It's a spin-off of Facebook's existing Facebook messaging service, and works much the same way.
Users can communicate directly with Messenger users on Android, iOS and Windows Phone.
The new launch comes as Facebook adds more features to its messaging service, allowing users to send animated GIFs and other files via the app.
There are 40 mobile apps already set up to use the service, including ones from the Weather Channel (where users can share forecasts).
The desktop version of Messenger is still in an early stage, and it's not clear what 'extra' features it will have.
‘One of the fastest growing and most important members of our family is Messenger," said Mark Zukckerberg at last month's Facebook developer's conference.
‘Facebook used to be this single blue app and it did a lot of different things, now Facebook is a family of apps. Moving from being a single service to a family of apps is the biggest shift we've made in our strategy in helping connect people.’
The iPhone and Android Messenger app was launched in 2011, but remained optional for Facebook users, until July when the network forced all users to either stop messaging altogether or download the new app
The app topped Apple’s list of the most-downloaded free apps of the year in 2014 – with Snapchat in second place, and YouTube in third.
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the comment writers alone and does not reflect or represent the views of Stephen Chuka