Facebook Launches Stand-Alone Messenger for the Web

Facebook on Wednesday launched a standalone version of its Messenger service for web browsers separate from Facebook's main site. The new dedicated Messenger service is available at the Messenger.com website. Signing in with your Facebook account gives you access to the messaging service. But for viewing News Feed and Timelines, users will have to go to Facebook's main site, where messaging will also still be available.

The new Messenger for the web, like the already in use dedicated Messenger app on mobile, is focused solely on the task of facilitating simple conversations. It thus leaves the other parts of Facebook that can be distracting to that singular activity of exchanging ideas between two or more parties. With it, you will be able to send pictures, stickers, and the familiar "thumbs up / Like" icon to your contacts on Facebook contacts. However, unlike in the mobile version, there is still no way to record and send voice messages from your desktop computer. Also, under the settings menu, while you can turn on or disable sound effects and desktop notifications, you need to go back to your main Facebook page if you want to block anyone or change your privacy settings. The Messenger site features a list of your threads on the left, with a white chat window on the right.

Facebook has no plans to remove messaging from its core Web service, a spokesperson confirmed to ReCode. The company already did this on mobile, requiring users to download the separate Messenger app in order to send and receive messages from their phone. One of the reasons Facebook made this change on mobile was that it wanted to more easily build features into the messaging app, like the peer-to-peer mobile payments system it launched last month, and an initiative called Messenger Platform, which allows third-party developers to build apps specifically for Messenger.