Facebook messenger hits 500 million users

Facebook launched their messenger app earlier this year and even though users have been complaining about the lack of privacy, the app now has more than 500 million users! This is a big number to hit since Facebook already has about 1 billion users, then messenger app is now in the same league as WhatsApp, Line and WeChat.

The Facebook messenger app has many benefits, the messages will pop up straight onto the screen of your phone and you can reply instantly, which means you can reach people straight away. It is just as fast as sending an SMS, but you can express yourself in ways that an SMS can’t like: stickers, videos, selfies, group chats and free calls! Facebook is currently finding ways to improve the speed and reliability too; there is one downfall though the “other” inbox is not visible on the phone app, so users have to wait until they get to a computer before they can check that.

We all know Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook CEO, well recently he explained the reason the company made an easier, separate messaging app…

 “We realize asking everyone in the community to install a new app is a big ask, but these apps are fast and just focused on messaging.”

He also went on to explain that is not a reason to make more money, but to offer people something they would really like. In the past you would have had to open a separate tab through the main Facebook app, and then you would be taken from the newsfeed or whatever you were looking at and lose your place, not to mention you would have to hit the back button about 50 times to get to someone else’s conversation.

Fortunately the messenger app now makes it possible for you to open many conversations at the same time without having to hit the back button constantly, plus you can also have the main app running in the background rather than losing your place.

There has been a bit of talk about the permissions that the app asks for when on a phone, but Facebook defended this and said they will not take control of your camera or phone people without warning you first, although to get full use of the app the permissions are required.

Facebook has over a million users worldwide, so over a third of them are using the Facebook messenger app, this is impressive to say the least, because if you think about it the new version of the app only launched a few months ago.

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Written By: Christine Romans
CopyWriter at The Computer Guyz Cape Town