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obscure
EVERYONE AND THEIR grandmother knows all about Facebook. You can’t not. The social network has more than a billion daily users across the globe.
It’s an essential part of modern life.
What’s less well-known is that as well as Facebook.com, the Californian tech company has a second, stripped-down website you can use to talk to your friends.
And if that’s all you want to do, it’s a whole lot better than the original Facebook.
Take a look.
In plain white, it doesn’t even look like Facebook – which could be a godsend in offices where the social network is banned. And if you’re sitting at your desk, it’s so much easier to use than any messaging app on your smartphone.
All in all, it’s very similar to the mobile Facebook Messenger app – but on desktop web browsers.
Facebook launched Messenger.com back in April 2015. But almost no-one seems to know it exists. I conducted an (admittedly unscientific) poll of my coworkers. None of them – including other tech journalists – knew it’s a thing.
The site only gets about 70 million visits per month, according to Similar Web – a tiny fraction of the overall Facebook audience. Head on over to Messenger.com now to give it a try, and enjoy messaging your Facebook friends without any of the social network’s clutter.
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Did you genuinely write an article saying you can get messenger on a computer?
But did you know it existed? I didn’t.
I often read posts here about journal having weak stories and think what a bunch of moaners. But now seriously, journal you can’t publish an article about a ‘little known app like messenger’. Everyone uses messenger and there’s not much need for a tutorial on a news site
Always on the cutting edge of new technology eh journal? Not really.
Did no one know about this?
Young persons of my acquaintance made me aware of this some time ago. However, since I’ve no interest in Facebook (or Facebook lite) the information wasn’t much use to me.
i use this in work and i also use whatsapp web which is also very good and also owned by Facebook
Being an auld one (in terms of tech) I hadn’t a clue what this was. So you’re going to get at least one thank you anyway for writing this article ;)
Oh my good God, is B for blather
If Facebook is banned so is messenger
Firefox has an add on that disables your news feed. Very useful as the news feed had turned to crap with adverts and posts from people I don’t know and you can still post happy birthday to friends’ walls etc. Just no more stupid posts.
That would be all of them then.
Yeah, why not let face book data mine your personal relationships.
It’s an essential part of modern life?
A post about facebook? Pitchforks out. I didn’t know about this myself, surprisingly. Gotta find out about it somewhere I guess.
Jeez I’m 68 and I’ve been using messenger to chat with almost all my acquaintances for a year now ! Little known ! Like Brennan’s Bread ! Of course you must have a Facebook account…. And real butter for the Brennan’s !
I would rate this a good as Skype if not better
What the f did I just read , really ? I want my 20 seconds back
Hi Rob, Did you know that ALL businesses can now support their customers via Facebook Live Chat directly on their websites with Zotabox’s easy to use integration tool? http://bit.ly/fb10001. Messenger is ubiquitous, free and easy to use and both parties have a permanent chat history.
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