Ondrej Holzman Brand new and expected Although Facebook Messenger was released last week, I waited a few days to give a verdict on whether the new application was successful. On the one hand, the new Messenger is really excellent, but it also has its dark side, which I cannot forgive...
Facebook Messenger used to be one of my most used apps. Facebook handles a large part of all the communication I do during the day, so Messenger was the obvious choice for connecting with friends and colleagues quickly and easily. But then Facebook came out with an upgraded client for iOS 7 and made one change for which I have yet to find a reasonable explanation.
If you have both Facebook and Messenger installed on the same device, you will not be able to access the messages inside the client; you can only read and send them from Messenger. Of course, Facebook will move you to Messenger from the client automatically by clicking on the icon, but I don't see a single benefit for the user.
On the contrary, I really liked it when Facebook introduced so-called chat heads for easier navigation and faster access to conversations in its client. And then it blasted them with a single update if you continued to use the separate Messenger services.
I do not like the changes described above from the point of view of a user who actively uses both parts of Facebook, if we can divide this social network - communication and "profile". Many people use Facebook exclusively for direct communication with friends, and the new Messenger will probably suit them best. Especially if they don't use Facebook and its application at all or don't have it installed.
[do action=”citation”]It doesn’t make sense why Facebook hard-wired the new Messenger with its iOS client.[/do]
However, if you have the Facebook client for iOS open and Messenger installed at the same time, and someone writes you a message, a notification will pop up in the client, but you have to move to another application to read it and react if necessary. This is especially a problem when you go back to the original app, which doesn't remember where you left off and reloads the content. You need to read many of the posts at least once more so often.
At the same time, it would be enough to add the option to choose whether you really want to switch to another application for chatting. It used to be no problem for both apps to work side by side, now they are dependent on each other (though only if both are installed), and that's bad.
At the same time, it is a rather paradoxical move from Facebook, because in its new Messenger it did everything to make it seem at first glance that the application has little to do with Facebook. In Menlo Park, they wanted to create a communication application that could compete with such players as WhatsApp or Viber, and Messenger as such really succeeded. Modern interface, connection with your phone contacts, easy contact and pleasant conversation itself.
Therefore, it makes no sense at all why Facebook tightly linked the new Messenger with the iOS client, when it wanted to separate it from the Facebook brand as much as possible. At the same time, one small update can solve the whole problem. After that, I can once again imagine the mutual symbiosis of the Facebook application and Messenger on a single iPhone. Otherwise, at the present time, such a connection is very unproductive and impractical.
[app url=”https://itunes.apple.com/cz/app/facebook-messenger/id454638411″]
On the contrary, I applaud the change. Before the update, duplicate notifications annoyed me, so I didn't use messenger. Nothing like that is happening now, although I don't know what a separate message app is for me, when the main app can do the same thing :D
Duplicate notifications can be easily deactivated.
I see the benefit in that if I just want to communicate and don't need to see the FB content itself (which is quite often), it's much faster and more convenient to just launch Messenger, which doesn't load the entire wall content and the like.
"Now nothing like that happens, although I don't know what a separate messaging app is for me when the main app can do the same thing"
He just can't do that. Because Messenger now also works like Viber/Whatsapp.
Didn't what you complain about the new Messenger happen before? I have a feeling that even before it switched me to Messenger if I wanted to reply to someone in the FB application.
Yes, it was happening a few versions before the update, but I expected it to be fixed with the brand new version. Unfortunately. That's also why I deleted Messenger earlier.
I was expecting a more comprehensive review, than a simple reflection on the topic "why am I switching?". :O/
I felt like there wasn't much to review. Compared to the previous version, the only major difference is that it can add contacts from your address book.
Well, that's it! You missed even the only important part.
"Modern interface, connection to your phone contacts, easy contact and pleasant conversation itself."
Although I recognize that it is mentioned only in passing.
I'm sorry, this mention probably just passed me by. But I am of the opinion that this is much more important than a personal problem with switching the application, which was there even before this version. ;O)
The fundamental change is that you can also chat with contacts that you don't have as friends on fb.
There is no problem on the Android versions - both the FB client and the messenger display messages "alone", even if you have both installed.
That's why I don't understand the move to iOS.
Apple will give support to the Messages system app (also for other social websites) and they can whistle, or so :D
I have to state that it doesn't work for me on iOS 7.. God!
I would say that this step (split applications) was due to being able to write texts even in landscape mode. I don't know why (and it bothers me enough), but the Facebook application does not support this mode when writing... and writing a long comment on the portrait keyboard is a pain in the ass... at least Messenger supports this...
The problem is that I don't want Messenger, I want it all in one app when I go to the stupid FB, but as soon as I wanted to read messages from the app, it worked normally at first, then they made it throw it out so that I could Messenger, which I always just unclicked, then they forced me to download it, but it was possible to get around it by downloading it, turning it on and deleting it and again going to the classic app and being able to read the messages there, but now the maximum compulsion to have the app as well even messenger, what can I do for them just like that...
I assume Facebook has two separate app development teams and they each live their own lives.
I like the department. Finally, Facebook doesn't duplicate what's in Messenger, and the notifications aren't separate either. Another big advantage for me is that I can open the application purely for chat, without all of Facebook stinking up there. :)
I haven't figured out a way to log out of the account and log in as a new user. in the previous version it was possible. does anyone know how to do this?
I switched from Android to iOS a week ago, and I was used to Facebook chat always popping up in the "profile wheel" - just like here. Here, however, after leaving Facebook, the wheel with the profile icon for chat disappears, whereas on Android it remained on the display and I could, for example, browse the net and have a running chat in the wheel on the side of the display.
And when someone wrote me a message and I wasn't on Facebook, a wheel with a profile picture popped up, which I just had to click on and the chat scrolled, but it didn't redirect me to Facebook and I stayed where I was (for example, in the browser, in the gallery, in music player etc...)
It seems to me that it worked for my brother on iOS 6 the same way I describe it for Android. Do you have experience with this?
Thanks for the answers.
on iOS 6 it was only possible with Jailbreak (which is not available for iOS 7)
The whole messenger went wrong when the FB app forced me to use it, about 2 months ago, the only way around it was that I had one FB account activated on the FB application and the other account on the messenger - I also have a company page, therefore 2 accounts. But it failed with the new messenger, I didn't have any option to unsubscribe from it, that's sick...and at the same time he duplicated my phone book, that is, when a person calls me who has his mobile phone on his FB account, he shows me that he's calling, for example, Jano D or Jano D, but terribly invented... the same name twice on the display...
Is it possible to set the messenger not to copy messages to messages on FB? To work completely separately?
Please advise how should I log out?