Facebook Messenger for iPhone

Facebook Messenger has been available for a few months now as an iPhone app, more recently available in Ireland. When I first heard about this app, I was dismissive of  yet another Facebook iPhone  app which duplicated a function already available on their official one. So why have Facebook released this application?

I think the idea here is Facebook hope ‘Messenger’ will be a success as a cross-platform communication app, which, given Facebook’s huge user base could be a possible  replacement for expensive SMS messages! Think of it as an emulation of Blackberry Messenger which is a big hit in the US. Facebook Messenger is now available for both Android and iOS, and according to the Facebook help page, it will soon also be available on the Blackberry platform.

Will you use it? If most of your friends are also on Facebook, this app could save you on SMS messages, as you get instant push notifications when a message arrives via Messenger. That is of course assuming you don’t mind Facebook having a copy of your correspondence.

The app alone is pretty basic in functionality, but it seems to do the job of getting the message through. There is a few settings however, one interesting one  includes the ability to turn of notifications for a period of time.  Personally I think Facebook  should spend a little more time on improving the stability and functionality of the current app than present its users with an additional one.

Sadly this app is not iPad friendly, but will load in ‘iPhone mode’ on your iPad – pretty useless  in that aspect. There may be an iPad version on the horizon somewhere, but Facebook are certainly taking their time iPad wise.

If you are a heavy Facebook Messenger, then you will  want to download this one and give it a try.

The application is of course free and available in the Irish and US app store. And at the time of writing this, is number 19 in the ‘top ten free’ apps on the iTunes app store.