Roger Fingas
Facebook on Thursday announced that new Messenger users will soon be able to sign up without a Facebook account, potentially expanding the reach of the chat service.
The option is currently rolling out in Canada, Peru, Venezuela, and the United States. People opening up the Messenger iOS or Android apps for the first time will see an added link letting them join Messenger with just a name, phone number, and contact photo.
Most of the apps' features will still be available this way, including voice and video calls and sharing media like photos and videos.
Signing in with a Facebook account is still strongly encouraged by the company however, since this not only imports friends from the social network but triggers message alerts across multiple devices and the Web.
Facebook has been gradually working to turn Messenger into its own platform. The process began by breaking Messenger out of the main Facebook app, and has accelerated in the past year, the biggest push coming in March with the introduction of both a third-party API and Messenger Business, the latter letting businesses chat with customers, send receipts and shipping info, and even process transactions.
Christine McKee
Andrew Orr
Charles Martin
Marko Zivkovic
Wesley Hilliard
14 Comments
I stopped using messenger the second they pulled it out of the Facebook app, most of my friends did the same.
Might as well read: "NSA Messenger app allows chat without signing in to FaceBook."
Later we'll find out that Facebook's face recognition software will be scanning the photos you send, and voice recognition software will be listening into your conversations to key on certain words their advertisers need to feed you their ads... [SIZE=4]Remember kiddies... "You are not Facebook's customer... you are their product."[/SIZE]
agree, unnecessary to have another message app
[quote name="djkfisher" url="/t/186911/facebook-messenger-apps-to-allow-chatting-without-a-facebook-account#post_2739744"]agree, unnecessary to have another message app [/quote] Oh cmon. Eventually even Evernote will have chat and social content sharing features, and require yet another sign in and remember a password. Meanwhile, you still need a phone, SMS, and the iPhone lets you sign in to all of its services with your fingerprint.