Back to één Facebook app?
Previously it was already possible to send messages to other users from the Facebook app. In 2014, however, those features were split off into a separate Messenger app. Mark Zuckerberg explained at the time that a separate Messenger app was needed to make chatting faster. All your friends should install the app so that everyone has a quick app. The chat functions would be unnecessarily in the way in the regular Facebook app and make the app slow. The use of the Messenger app grew steadily as a result, but it never became as big as Instagram and WhatsApp (also owned by Facebook). Now Facebook is partially reversing that decision.
You will still have to install the separate Messenger app for chatting with text, but for voice and video you can use the Facebook app again in the future. The new features are already rolling out to a limited number of users “in multiple countries, including the US”. The company often does A/B tests, where the app looks very different for one group of users than for another group.
Encrypted conversations
The Messenger app itself is also going to change: Facebook has announced end-to-end encryption for audio and video conversations in messenger. In addition, the app has received support for QR codes and payment links.
In 2019, researcher Jane Manchun Wong already discovered that Facebook plans to bring more functions together in a single app, as it once was. This was evident from Messenger logos in the Facebook app and a chat option with basic messaging features. You couldn't do much with that. For example, replying to text messages, making calls, or sending pictures was not possible.
‘More to come’
Facebook has not indicated whether more Messenger features are available. back in the regular Facebook app, but Messenger's product manager did tell Bloomberg “you'll be seeing more of this over time”. If you want the full chat experience, Facebook recommends that you continue to use the Messenger app for the time being. Meanwhile, Facebook also plans to bring text chat into one shared inbox for Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Oculus.