

Facebook Messenger 3.0 - mvbrasil
https://www.facebook.com/mobile/messenger

======
rlu
It's interesting how they call it texting rather than messaging. I almost
thought for a second they really meant SMS.

~~~
ConceitedCode
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it is more than just messaging and might
include SMS. From the Play store description, "Not just for Facebook friends:
Now you can message people in your phone book. And it's easy to add new
contacts—just enter a phone number.". The android app also requires permission
to edit/create SMS messages and make phone calls.

If so, does this mean we can be able to send an SMS from facebook now or just
from our phones?

It's worth noting that the screenshot from the android phone also shows you
missed calls.

~~~
rlu
I assume (but don't know!) that the "find people by entering their phone
number" feature simply tries to find Facebook users with lax enough privacy
settings such that (a) they expose their phone numbers to maybe friends or
friends and (b) they allow non-friends to message them. Otherwise I feel like
they would phrase it as "message people who aren't on Facebook!"

What Android screenshot are you looking at that makes you think it shows
missed calls? I see two icons: a sort of bolt and a facebook "f". I think that
the bolt means the user is using "Messenger" (i.e. fb on mobile) whereas the
fb "f" means facebook.com.

~~~
ConceitedCode
Can anyone confirm or deny? I no longer have a facebook account and don't want
one so I can't check.

The first android screenshot on the linked page, shows that there is 1 missed
call from Mac Tyler. Just worth noting, not sure if it means anything but it
is interesting.

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adambratt
To those complaining about this, you're not the target market.

I was on a train from Chicago to Detroit a week ago and there was a group of
about 10 high schoolers sitting behind me. We got talking about iPhone apps
and I asked what was popular.

They all agreed Facebook was not as cool anymore and confessed to being
addicted to messaging apps that their parents couldn't check up on like they
could with texts. Snapchat, Kik, and Whatsapp were among those mentioned.

It's interesting because if you look at these apps in the App Store, the
screenshots are definitely targeting that age demographic as well.

Facebook is losing ground fast for this age group. The group that has grown up
using Facebook and is now moving on to other mediums. This release looks very
promising in helping to win back that interest.

~~~
eldude
Facebook isn't just losing ground to a specific demographic, they're losing
centrality and relevance in a market they defined. While Facebook may be
pervasive, it's pervasive in the way that Microsoft Office was in an era of
Macs and Google Apps 2 years ago; We all kept a copy of Word installed for
when someone emailed us a .doc or .ppt file.

Would love to grab lunch or discuss further where this is all headed from a
broader market and societal standpoint, for anyone in the Bay Area.

~~~
cweiss
Wouldn't the better analogy be "pervasive in the way MySpace was X years ago
and America Online was, X years before that"? The question is, what's going to
replace it? The "instant messaging" market is too fragmented right now (though
one could argue the social network space was just as fragmented before FB
exploded). SMS has no fundamental single 'owner' to drive change/feature
improvements.

~~~
eldude
You're missing the distinction; Nobody kept their MySpace around or created a
new one once is was replaced because it was unnecessary. You could say it's
like AOL Instant Messenger, but if anything that's a weaker analogy since
nothing really replaced it so much as IM became a commodity.

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MRSallee
Based on the App Store screenshots, there's basically no Facebook branding.
Just colors and a like button. Even the app icon doesn't say Facebook.

Interesting.

~~~
MasterScrat
Indeed... When I saw the updated icon on my home screen I wondered for a
minute what this thing was.

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gailees
This is amazing. Now if only they took over email too. Facebook should
completely pivot into an identification and messaging platform.

~~~
BaconJuice
strong troll?

~~~
salemh
Sarcasm I imagine. [http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jul/02/business/la-fi-tn-
fa...](http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jul/02/business/la-fi-tn-facebook-
email-more-problems-20120702)

The email switch didn't work out so well.

------
mentos
>'say it better with stickers'

Can't believe how much money is to be had from selling stickers in messaging
apps

~~~
brianbreslin
One of those asian messaging app companies makes 20%+ of their revenue from
stickers (tens of millions of $ a month)

~~~
chid
Source: [http://thenextweb.com/apps/2013/08/08/line-corp-brings-
in-13...](http://thenextweb.com/apps/2013/08/08/line-corp-brings-in-132m-of-
revenue-in-q2-2013-as-its-messaging-app-contributes-76/)

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natesm
If you install this, the messaging tab in the primary Facebook app now just
switches you to the Messenger app. What a weird choice.

I decided to uninstall Messenger, I like being able to chat while browsing
other Facebook pages.

~~~
chid
Just tested, this happens on iOS. Not sure about Android. I definitely agree
with you.

Pressing back brings you back into the standard Facebook app.

~~~
nwh
That's extremely strange behaviour. I can't imagine that sticking around in
the long term. Switching views takes milliseconds, switching apps take much
longer.

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laglad
Does anyone know how to remove the reminder to turn on notifications?

Details: \- Using latest iOS

\- All notifications are off in iPhone's settings

\- Every time I switch to the app, a full page message reminds me to turn on
notifications (even just swiping to Control Center reproduces the full page
message. Aggressive!)

\- In the Facebook messenger settings, there are only 2 options: to "Turn off
until 8:00am" or "Turn off for 1h".

If this is intentional (or rather if it persists past today), Facebook just
lost the last stronghold they had on me. I use them for nothing but messaging.
And the one caveat I have for using them is that I only check in when the
thought occurs to me not as I'm pinged.

If intentional (speculation coming), I bet they've run the engagement #s to
show it makes sense. But this is a bad principle that is pretty restrictive
for a company at their scale. They've pretty much increased the cost of
cognitive cost of using their app.

The facebook messenger user in me is hoping this is a feature that times out
after the first day of installs. Otherwise goodbye Zuck.

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mikelbring
I just prefer to use the FB app it self. When I was using the Messenger app, I
would get a notification from Messenger and the FB app, it got rather
annoying.

~~~
fournm
I didn't, but making it a requirement to enter your phone number to use the
app with no mentions of what the privacy controls for people being able to
message you with just your phone number are made the new app a quick
uninstall.

Facebook, you've had enough privacy problems in the past, is it really that
hard to outline what's going on here or even just not require the number? I've
heard that GVoice numbers don't work, as well, which just makes it even worse.

------
spicyj
The iOS release notes (on [https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/facebook-
messenger/id4546384...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/facebook-
messenger/id454638411?mt=8)) say:

"Not just for Facebook friends: Now you can message people in your phone book.
And it's easy to add new contacts—just enter a phone number."

so perhaps it does include an SMS bridge.

~~~
FiloSottile
Just checked. No SMS bridge, just a WhatsApp-like phone numbers based contacts
system.

This means you can message anyone who uses Messenger if you have his phone
number.

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brianbreslin
So this is a shot across the bow at WhatsApp and kik and MessageMe right?
Those apps are incredibly popular in developing nations.

~~~
snogglethorpe
... and LINE, and Kakaotalk, and ...

The thing is that many of these apps are both pretty good, and have _insane_
market penetration... It's hard to see why anybody would switch to a FB app
that's very likely worse if they're already using something else (so all their
contacts are there).

~~~
aianus
If they're on Facebook all their contacts will be on Facebook Messenger. Does
Facebook have poor market penetration in Asia?

~~~
snogglethorpe
I do not have numbers, but while a fair number of people use FB in Japan, it's
far from the juggernaut it is in the U.S. According to Wikipedia, Japan has
about 17 million FB users, Korea about 10 million, and China only about 0.6
million!

LINE, in the meantime, just celebrated its 300 millionth user, and its user
base is concentrated in Asian countries.

------
albeec13
This appears to be a reaction to Google Hangouts more than anything else. From
the Play Store description for Facebook Messenger, it sounds like you can
indeed send messages to friends based on their phone number, but it does not
appear to be via SMS. It's more similar to something like Snapchat, where it
uses your phonebook to find people who have registered their phone numbers
with the app.

Furthermore, last week, information leaked regarding Facebook dropping SMS
support due to lack of uptake. One source for this:
[http://thenextweb.com/apps/2013/10/29/facebook-testing-
new-m...](http://thenextweb.com/apps/2013/10/29/facebook-testing-new-
messenger-app-android-drops-sms-support/)

Long story short, this appears to be a data-only messaging app, not unlike
pre-SMS Hangouts or some of the other apps people in this thread have
mentioned (Kik, Whatsapp, etc.).

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antonius
Sleek, simple UI. Too bad no Windows Phone release just yet.

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mau
What a coincidence. I just had a conversation with a friend about how FB
failed with its Messenger to get the users of Whatsapp & other similar apps.
Apparently they know this and are trying to improve it. Same discussion
applies to Skype that was never able to make a fast user experience on mobile:
every update of Skype on my iPhone seem to slow down the app and make it more
crash friendly...

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senthilnayagam
so facebook saved 3billion dollars and rolled out a snapchat clone in 30 days,
it can claim a billion user in next 60 days

~~~
killwhitey
If you're talking about Poke, no one uses it. It hasn't been updated for iOS7,
and most likely never will.

[https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/facebook-
poke/id588594730?mt...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/facebook-
poke/id588594730?mt=8)

~~~
senthilnayagam
check the new Facebook messenger, with sms verification, send message to your
contacts on phone and a lot more.

same as whatsapp and snapchat does

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kfk
I hate the direction FB is going with the messaging system. It doesn't work
well when you try to send anything longer than a few words. Send an email you
might say, many people don't read emails as much as they read FB. Sad but
true.

/rant

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FiloSottile
Note: I think the app is syncing your address book with FB servers.

~~~
RKearney
Only if you opt-in to it.

When you launch the app you're prompted to decide if you want to sync your
contact list so the app can be used to contact non-Facebook friends. It's not
doing it without your explicit approval.

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epeus
The android one has an iOS 7 aesthetic that feels really odd on Android. Also,
Google Hangouts just absorbed actual SMS on Android, so that will be
interesting.

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superchink
Is anyone else still seeing the old UI? I even tried removing and re-
installing. On iOS.

~~~
superchink
Nevermind… waited a couple minutes, and the update showed up. Strange though,
that a fresh install installed the old version…

