After a series of critics for separating its instant messenger service from the rest of its social features, Facebook has reached an important milestone with its Messenger app: as of Monday, the app is used by over 500 million Facebook users on a variety of mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. After an initial outcry against the decision, people have made peace with the social giant’s decision, starting to adopt the app and using it for messaging on the go.
The social network has decided to separate its Facebook app from its Facebook Messenger app in July. Users did not receive the decision very well – Facebook effectively forced them to download and install another app on their devices, using it for instant messaging through the social network instead of the main app itself. In time users gave in, adapting to the new reality, and this week the Facebook Messenger app has reached an important milestone – 500 million monthly users.
The ascension of Facebook Messenger was not without obstacles. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg himself has admitted that “asking everyone in the community to install a new app is a big ask”. The decision to turn Facebook Messenger into a standalone service was based on the popularity of apps centered on specific purposes – instant messaging in this case. Not that Facebook Messenger was without a competition – Samsung has ChatOn, Apple has iMessage, and WhatsApp was also a serious competitor until it was taken over by Facebook itself, with 600 million users of its own.
There is one thing I am still curious about. As many of us know, Facebook uses the open Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) protocol, formerly known as Jabber, for its instant messaging service. Thus, a Facebook Messenger account can be accessed using any application capable of handling this protocol, including a series of multi-protocol instant messenger clients for desktop computers and mobile devices. What I would like to know is whether the 500 million represents the number of people using the service, or the number of users that have installed the app itself?