In October of last year, Meta decided to shut down the Messenger app for desktop to help push users to adopt the browser version of the messaging service. Well, guess what? The social media giant just announced that it’s shutting down the browser version too. This shutdown also marks the end of the Meta-owned chat platform.
Per the official help centre, messenger.com will officially go offline starting in April 2026. Users are encouraged to move to the new website facebook.com/messages to continue your conversations on a browser, largely to get used to it. If you type in and visit the soon-to-be-defunct URL after April 2026, it will instead redirect you to the new site. The messaging website will notify browser users of this change they next time they open their chat.
Mobile users, however, can continue using the Messenger app as usual, unless Meta makes a future announcement that changes that. The same is true for those who use Messenger without a Facebook account (yes, you can have a Messenger account by signing up and tying it to your phone number).
The Tale Of Two Apps
If you recall, Messenger used to be a part of Facebook, but Meta (then called Facebook) split the two apart in 2014. At the time, Zuckerberg explained that separating the apps would make Messenger “faster and more focused”, enabling users to respond more quickly. He also emphasised that Facebook’s primary function was to serve as a news feed. A few months later, the company released the iOS version of the app. From there, the messaging platform was essentially undergoing mitosis, as several Messenger variants were cropping up left, right, and centre.
Messenger’s Variants, Meta’s Overall Plan, And Shut Down
In April 2015, Meta launched the website interface that we’re all familiar with today. Over the years, the company released several variations of the app, including Messenger Lite, which was a leaner version of the original app, launched in October 2016 for the time’s previous generation of smartphones. It also introduced Messenger Kids in December 2017, a new app designed for children under 13.
In 2019, the company announced plans to integrate the infrastructure of Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp, allowing users across these platforms to communicate seamlessly with one another. Although Meta did not frame Messenger’s shutdown as a strategic shift, this closure marks another step away from the company’s broader ambition of a major messaging infrastructure.
INQUIRER.net USA reports that by retiring Messenger.com, Meta is streamlining operations and cutting costs to deliver updates more quickly and manage security more efficiently. If true, this would be ironic, as streamlining was a major concern when Messenger was first separated from Facebook in 2014.
It’s worth noting that Meta did not give a formal reason why it decided to retire Messenger. We reached out to social media giant to ask why and when exactly the shutdown will take effect, but we have yet to receive an official response. We will update the article if we receive any new updates.
(Source: Meta [help centre])
