Years after eradicating direct messaging options from the primary Fb app, the social media big appears to be like to be contemplating their return because it assessments the addition of voice and video calls to Fb, in response to Bloomberg.
Fb customers have been beforehand solely in a position to make voice and video calls to different customers by way of Fb’s separate Messenger app when on cell, however the testing will see some accounts in a position to make these calls utilizing the primary app.
Fb’s director of product administration, Connor Hayes, informed Bloomberg the take a look at is trying to streamline communication by eradicating the necessity to swap between the primary Fb app and Fb Messenger.
It’s as but unclear whether or not Fb will carry the first characteristic of Messenger – textual content chat – again into the primary app, however some integration of different Fb properties has already began to occur.
Instagram and WhatsApp are each owned by Fb, and it has already enabled customers to join their Messenger and Instagram chats collectively since September final 12 months. There’s additionally discuss of connecting WhatsApp and Messenger chats as nicely.
Talking to Bloomberg, Hayes stated: “You’re going to begin to see fairly a bit extra of this over time”.
Evaluation: are two apps higher than one?
Fb first eliminated messaging options from its cell app in 2014, which meant customers wanted to obtain Messenger in the event that they needed to proceed sending direct messages to different Fb customers from cell.
Whereas there’s argument to be made for streamlining messaging again into the primary Fb app, there’s additionally a superb case for holding them separate. Fb definitely isn’t what it was once – shifting from a social media web site the place customers shared textual content or standing posts to 1 that now primarily sees customers sharing hyperlinks and viewing adverts.
Some customers should still wish to bypass the stream of stories, commercials and shared posts through the use of Messenger to speak with family and friends, whereas others have eliminated the primary Fb app from their telephone altogether.
Information collected by SimilarWeb reveals that whereas WhatsApp is the messaging app of selection in most international locations, Messenger is available in second, and is the app of selection in international locations similar to america, Australia, Canada and France.
Both manner, Fb wins with regards to messaging apps, however the query is whether or not integrating Messenger options again into the primary app will assist the enterprise, or have customers searching for options in the long run.