
Facebook Launches Standalone Mobile Messenger App (And It’s Beluga) - davidedicillo
http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/09/facebook-launches-standalone-mobile-messenger-app-and-it’s-beluga/
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Vexenon
Maybe it's just me, but I love the login screen for Messenger. They made the
application simple and unbelievably clean; kudos to their team on it.

I really hope they start to bring this type of experience to Facebook for
iPhone.

~~~
smackfu
A lovely login screen. Followed by a not very well explained request for my
mobile phone number, so they can send me a text that has a link to Facebook
that makes me login again.

All to log in to my Facebook account, which I am already logged in to in the
Facebook app on the same phone.

~~~
zdrtx
Do you have login approvals turned on?
[https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=security&section=a...](https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=security&section=approvals&t)

~~~
smackfu
Nope.

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covercash
Does anyone know if they sync your contacts to their server? I know the
Facebook app on the iPhone has a button to sync them, but a messaging app that
relies on your contact list seems like it might just make that assumption and
automatically do it.

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bgertzfield
I'm an engineer on the Facebook Messenger team.

Quick answer: Messenger does not sync your contacts to the server.

Official answer to the inaccurate meme that's going around:
<https://www.facebook.com/facebook/posts/10150353502026729>

You might wonder how we match up your Facebook friends with your contacts so
you don't see duplicates in the list: with Messenger, instead of doing it on
the server, matching and de-duplicating of Facebook friends and local address
book contacts is all done on the client.

The only time Messenger will send a phone number from your local address book
to the server is when you use Messenger to send an SMS message to:

1) A non-Facebook user, or

2) A Facebook user who doesn't have a mobile contact point already on the
server

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canistr
I'm disappointed this is for Android 2.2 and up. Not all of us Android users
have that available nor are we finished our contracts that allow us to upgrade
to a new device.

Facebook should have made it compatible with at least 2.0/2.1.

~~~
lukejduncan
Facebook on Android is a consistently bad experience. What's worse, I
occasionally deactivate my account for periods of time to focus on school /
work /etc. The app comes pre-installed on my HTC so I can't remove it.
However, it keeps trying to authenticate and randomly gives me
can't-authenticate errors or launches the browser to a facebook login. Pretty
disappointing experience.

~~~
hucker
The design and how it works when it works is pretty good in my opinion, but
stuff like what you mention is making me hate the facebook app with a passion.
If I get for example a "1 new message" notification, and I press it, nine out
of ten times nothing will happen or the app will open to a blank messaging
screen, showing nothing (and will stay that way).

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teilo
It astounds me that Facebook would release a new messaging app, and it's still
not a hybrid iPhone/iPad app. Still have to put up with crappy scaling.

Seriously, what's with you guys?

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iamcalledrob
I'm proud of the team on this one. They've done a great job launching such a
polished experience.

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hucker
Unavailable in Norway for Android at least. What is the reasoning behind that
I wonder...

~~~
rodh257
Not available in AU either, but someone has uploaded the APK according to the
comments of this post [http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2011/08/this-is-the-facebook-
messe...](http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2011/08/this-is-the-facebook-messenger-
app-you-cant-get-yet/)

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robgough
Doesn't seem to be available in the UK yet.

