The future Meta AI would have seemingly fit rightly in there.
Facebook really could have been the default online identity provider if they weren't such an abhorrently shitty company. In the early days, you wouldn't even ask for someone's number - you'd just chat on Facebook.
Not much difference.
My facebook account is deactivated but I can keep on messaging. But... facebook.com/messages requires you to log in to your facebook account (which reactivates it).
So Mobile app would be my only option. Right now a lot of family members use Messenger, so it's not trivial to move away entirely.
Currently it is in the "malicious compliance" phase.
"Modern" mainstream IM is completely misserable. I hate having to use one-app-per-each-protocol for the sake of "security" and "features".
Or delete them!
Then Facebook started blocking 3rd party clients and Pidgin et-al slowly faded away.
“…and you can see our facebook sign-ups during this past quarter were significant, showing how people are just clamoring for our AI offerings. With your investment, we can keep this going.”
So my account is in a strange limbo where Messenger still works, but I can't use Facebook itself without choosing one of the two evils. So this will definitely be the final nail in the coffin for my Facebook account.
The only question is, how will I request takeout of my data when I can't do anything in the app before answering in that modal, and also, how do I delete my account? I do NOT want to click accept to the tracking, and I refuse to pay for an app haven't even used for several years now.
Which one lets them display more ads? Probably the site.
For my money, I've always felt like they've tried to force me to use their messenger app on my phone. A while back, desktop/web started asking for a PIN to restore messages. It doesn't always prompt, and sometimes messages are there which you'd think shouldn't be, based on the description of E2EE and the role the PIN plays in it. I did not set any PIN, so I of course don't know it. Resetting the PIN deletes my entire message history.
Zuck deserves to be in prison along with other black hat hackers, this is just one of so many other things he's guilty of
fsck them! i blocked my fb account and not looking back. once it was a place to find and discuss with interesting people... but now it's just a cesspool of filtered irrelevance and propaganda.
I also vastly prefer typing to the horrible swiping keyboard my phone uses. So for communicating via text, a computer is a much nicer solution, in my opinion.
I was unsurprised to see that (at least with the local Instagram bridge), Beeper is extremely inconsistent with push notifications and sometimes has messages missing in the chat.
- Install browser that lets you run plugins
- Change user-agent to a desktop browser - any will do
- (optional) run social fixer while you're at it
I completely understand that iOS probably won't let you do this. I've been doing this on Android and Firefox, and the web experience on a phone is... functional. Since it thinks its a desktop, the page layout doesn't always gracefully fit into a portrait form-factor. Landscape mode helps in those cases.
* You could theme it however you wanted to an obscene amount. I had it display all messages right after each other in a small font without any linebreaks and I've never been able to have anything like that since then.
* The dock icon showed the names of the last few people who sent you unread messages
* It integrated with the OS X phone book app so you could it would display a single "John Smith" regardless of how many chat apps (AIM, MSN, Yahoo, etc.) you had them on
* It was actually smooth and not clunky (unlike Pidgin at the time and maybe half of apps today).
When the US Constitution was drafted in 1787, authorizing the new Federal government to run a postal service, carrying letters and packages via horse rider/wagons was the state-of-the-art.
Yeah, I'm suggesting he go to prison for "doing whatever he wants"
To be clear. They're a weird goal post move from "FORCED a 6 digit pin"
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Messenger, has announced that its standalone Messenger desktop application and the Messenger.com website will no longer be available starting April 2026. The move marks the final phase in Meta’s gradual retirement of desktop‑focused messaging interfaces.
Meta confirmed that users attempting to access messaging services via Messenger.com on desktop computers after the shutdown date will be automatically redirected to Facebook.com/messages to continue their conversations or will need to use the Messenger mobile app on iOS and Android devices.
The Messenger desktop app for macOS and Windows had already been discontinued in December 2025, with Meta removing the apps from official stores and encouraging users to transition to web‑based messaging well before April 2026. This policy change reflects a broader strategic shift by Meta toward browser‑based and mobile messaging, rather than maintaining separate native desktop clients, which historically saw less usage compared to mobile versions.
Meta has advised users to enable features like secure storage and PIN protection in their Messenger settings to ensure that encrypted chat history remains accessible across devices once the desktop and standalone web service are gone. This is especially relevant for users who relied on Messenger without a Facebook account, as they will still be able to access chats on mobile.
The retirement of the desktop app and separate web interface is part of Meta’s effort to simplify its communication ecosystem and focus on unified, browser‑first platforms that are easier to update and integrate with new features. Industry analysts see this trend as part of a larger move away from traditional native clients toward centralized web and mobile experiences.
Users and tech communities have shared mixed reactions online, with some lamenting the loss of the standalone desktop experience while others adjust to using Messenger through web browsers or mobile devices.