I remember using Pidgin in ~2009. A dozen chat networks, all on one app. Desktop software built with a native GUI toolkit. And, on top of all that: you could keep your chat logs forever. The world of yesterday.
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neogodless
I'm one of those edge cases who uses Messenger.com a lot.
My facebook account is deactivated but I can keep on messaging. But... facebook.com/messages requires you to log in to your facebook account (which reactivates it).
So Mobile app would be my only option. Right now a lot of family members use Messenger, so it's not trivial to move away entirely.
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hmokiguess
I wish we went back to communication protocols, and allowed people to bring their clients. mIRC was my favourite era of async communication, now it's all just a giant spaghetti of apps.
sccxy
Traffic to facebook.com must have dropped hard to make that kind of move.
It's strange to abandon the Messenger brand for such a reason.
I was similarly surprised when MS abandoned the MSN Messenger brand.
jinushaun
They really are forcing me to visit facebook.com in 2026 aren’t they? Guess I’ll stop using FB messenger when I’m on a computer.
I'm so piss off by website like messenger, or google meet for example that try to force you to install their app on your phone when you just when to send a message or make a call on the web app.
Strangely it works very well in the browser, but they can't spy you as easily so they don't like that.
sombragris
> Meta confirmed that users attempting to access messaging services via Messenger.com on desktop computers after the shutdown date will be automatically redirected to Facebook.com/messages to continue their conversations
So this is full circle. First it was like that (facebook.com/messages), then we were redirected to messenger.com. Now we're back to the beginning!
hbn
These days I only use FB Messenger for the small few number of friends who still use Facebook and send me videos on there. But the experience of watching videos sent to you is so incredibly clunky - Messenger itself apparently can't just play the video, it has to kick you into the Facebook app, so watching 3 videos someone sent involves 6 jumps between apps. And the player in the Facebook app seems broken, seemingly sometimes there's no scrub bar, or if there's supposed to be one it doesn't work.
swyx
> The Messenger desktop app for macOS and Windows had already been discontinued in December 2025, with Meta removing the apps from official stores and encouraging users to transition to web‑based messaging well before April 2026. This policy change reflects a broader strategic shift by Meta toward browser‑based and mobile messaging, rather than maintaining separate native desktop clients, which historically saw less usage compared to mobile versions.
interesting. do we see this move with coding agents as well? we're also seeing kind of the opposite move of the chat AI apps from web/terminal -> TO desktop apps
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cobertos
Huh... I have used messenger.com plenty.
* To share my account creds w/ a friend to help sift through many real estate leads we advertised on FB Marketplace.
* Working easily between FB ads and comms
* Linking things from my computer for a business-related group.
* Handling anything FB marketplace while in flow on my desktop.
Hopefully the replacement isn't worse
beanjuiceII
this move has really made me think about moving away from messenger, i hate the website version and only use desktop app outside of phone app
It's funny to see this all go full circle. messenger.com was spun out of facebook.com to try to build a new platform. They promised interoperability with Instagram and WhatsApp accounts, although they never did a good enough job that you could just use one account across them.
Facebook really could have been the default online identity provider if they weren't such an abhorrently shitty company. In the early days, you wouldn't even ask for someone's number - you'd just chat on Facebook.
szmarczak
Why do you post a proxy article instead of linking directly to source? Why does the website ask for my location?
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random3
I think META like many other "service providers" don't yet realize, that it's becoming trivial to roll your own and all we need is a protocol. And arguably there are many. You can then use your existing social graph (anyone remembers this term? lol) to chat.
Your mom and granddad won't roll their own, but publishing an open service that uses FB openID and API while delegating to the open protocol is really not that hard. Browser local storage may not be ideal, but it's a good placeholder until something better can be implemented.
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creddit
I’m honestly incredibly surprised they would get rid of the desktop app just as desktop messaging apps have become their most important.
The future Meta AI would have seemingly fit rightly in there.
I remember using Pidgin in ~2009. A dozen chat networks, all on one app. Desktop software built with a native GUI toolkit. And, on top of all that: you could keep your chat logs forever. The world of yesterday.
I'm one of those edge cases who uses Messenger.com a lot.
My facebook account is deactivated but I can keep on messaging. But... facebook.com/messages requires you to log in to your facebook account (which reactivates it).
So Mobile app would be my only option. Right now a lot of family members use Messenger, so it's not trivial to move away entirely.
I wish we went back to communication protocols, and allowed people to bring their clients. mIRC was my favourite era of async communication, now it's all just a giant spaghetti of apps.
Traffic to facebook.com must have dropped hard to make that kind of move.
It's strange to abandon the Messenger brand for such a reason.
I was similarly surprised when MS abandoned the MSN Messenger brand.
They really are forcing me to visit facebook.com in 2026 aren’t they? Guess I’ll stop using FB messenger when I’m on a computer.
It looks like https://www.facebook.com/messages is effectively the same thing.
I'm so piss off by website like messenger, or google meet for example that try to force you to install their app on your phone when you just when to send a message or make a call on the web app.
Strangely it works very well in the browser, but they can't spy you as easily so they don't like that.
> Meta confirmed that users attempting to access messaging services via Messenger.com on desktop computers after the shutdown date will be automatically redirected to Facebook.com/messages to continue their conversations
So this is full circle. First it was like that (facebook.com/messages), then we were redirected to messenger.com. Now we're back to the beginning!
These days I only use FB Messenger for the small few number of friends who still use Facebook and send me videos on there. But the experience of watching videos sent to you is so incredibly clunky - Messenger itself apparently can't just play the video, it has to kick you into the Facebook app, so watching 3 videos someone sent involves 6 jumps between apps. And the player in the Facebook app seems broken, seemingly sometimes there's no scrub bar, or if there's supposed to be one it doesn't work.
> The Messenger desktop app for macOS and Windows had already been discontinued in December 2025, with Meta removing the apps from official stores and encouraging users to transition to web‑based messaging well before April 2026. This policy change reflects a broader strategic shift by Meta toward browser‑based and mobile messaging, rather than maintaining separate native desktop clients, which historically saw less usage compared to mobile versions.
interesting. do we see this move with coding agents as well? we're also seeing kind of the opposite move of the chat AI apps from web/terminal -> TO desktop apps
Huh... I have used messenger.com plenty.
* To share my account creds w/ a friend to help sift through many real estate leads we advertised on FB Marketplace.
* Working easily between FB ads and comms
* Linking things from my computer for a business-related group.
* Handling anything FB marketplace while in flow on my desktop.
Hopefully the replacement isn't worse
this move has really made me think about moving away from messenger, i hate the website version and only use desktop app outside of phone app
Previously posted: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47042390
It's funny to see this all go full circle. messenger.com was spun out of facebook.com to try to build a new platform. They promised interoperability with Instagram and WhatsApp accounts, although they never did a good enough job that you could just use one account across them.
Facebook really could have been the default online identity provider if they weren't such an abhorrently shitty company. In the early days, you wouldn't even ask for someone's number - you'd just chat on Facebook.
Why do you post a proxy article instead of linking directly to source? Why does the website ask for my location?
I think META like many other "service providers" don't yet realize, that it's becoming trivial to roll your own and all we need is a protocol. And arguably there are many. You can then use your existing social graph (anyone remembers this term? lol) to chat. Your mom and granddad won't roll their own, but publishing an open service that uses FB openID and API while delegating to the open protocol is really not that hard. Browser local storage may not be ideal, but it's a good placeholder until something better can be implemented.
I’m honestly incredibly surprised they would get rid of the desktop app just as desktop messaging apps have become their most important.
The future Meta AI would have seemingly fit rightly in there.
Didn't they kill the Mac desktop app last year?
$1.62bn market cap
Source, earlier: https://www.facebook.com/help/messenger-app/804132271957789 (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47042390)
I guess you just goto: https://www.facebook.com/messages/
Not much difference.
Mark Zuckerberg is a vile sociopath, I think the historical evidence long supports it
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