Facebook Messenger is #5 in Top 10 Business Messaging platforms

Positions in ratings

#5 in Top 10 Business Messaging platforms

#7 in Top 13 Video Calling apps

Alternatives

The best alternatives to Facebook Messenger are: iMessage, WhatsApp, Google Chat, Telegram, Viber, Zoom

Latest news about Facebook Messenger

2021. Facebook is bringing end-to-end encryption to Messenger calls



Facebook has extended the option of using end-to-end encryption for Facebook Messenger voice calls and video calls. End-to-end encryption (E2EE) — a security feature that prevents third-parties from eavesdropping on calls and chats — has been available for text conversations on Facebook’s flagship messaging service since 2016. Although the company has faced pressure from governments to roll back its end-to-end encryption plans, Facebook is now extending this protection to both voice and video calls on Messenger, which means that “nobody else, including Facebook, can see or listen to what’s sent or said.” There's just one caveat: You have to choose to activate encryption, meaning your calls will theoretically be vulnerable to data hijinks unless you opt in to this new feature.

2020. Facebook updates Messenger Rooms to take on Zoom



Messenger Rooms, Facebook’s Zoom competitor, is rolling out new features aimed at making Rooms easier to both create and discover, as well as those for further personalizing your Rooms experience. The new version of Messenger Rooms will now display the Rooms you’ve been invited to up at the top of your Chats tab in your inbox to make them easier to find. It will also make the ability to create a new Room more visible, by placing the option front and center in the Chats tab. Other changes impact Rooms management. You can now create a Room with a default, suggested or custom activity, set a future start date and customize your audience selection. In addition, the Manage Rooms feature will let you view, join, edit or later delete the rooms you have created, or invite more people to join an existing Room.


2020. Facebook Messenger's new chat plugin for business websites allows to reach non-Facebook users



Facebook is making it easier for businesses to leverage its Messenger service on their own websites. Until now the customer chat plugin, that allows customers to talk directly with a business on the business’s own website using the Messenger service, required the website visitors to be logged into Facebook, limiting adoption. The updated plugin will now allow customers to talk to businesses without being logged in, Facebook says. Instead, a “continue as guest” option will be available. However, on the business’s side, they’ll still be able to use all their same tools to manage their conversations with these online users, whether logged in or not.


2020. Businesses on Facebook can now respond to customers in Messenger



Facebook is launching a new inbox on Messenger today to make it easier for business owners to respond to incoming customer messages from the same app they use to message friends and family. The update will allow businesses to manage all their communications from a single app, instead of having to toggle back and forth between apps in order to write and respond to customer inquires — A process many business owners said they found frustrating. Business users can still use the Facebook’s Page Manager app to manage their Facebook posts, create ads, view their Page insights and respond to messages, if they choose.


2020. Facebook announces Zoom-like clone with Messenger Rooms



Facebook comes for Zoom with a new service - Messenger Rooms - a tile-view video chat experience that can hold up to 50 participants. You do not need a Facebook account to join a Messenger Room. There will be no time limits on calls. Messenger Rooms privacy protections include the ability to control who sees your room, and can lock or unlock it. If it's unlocked, anyone with the link can join and share the room with others. But the room creator has to be present to start the call. Messenger Rooms arrives as some people are looking for an alternative to Zoom, which has faced a number of security and privacy issues in the past two months.


2020. Facebook takes on Zoom with Messenger desktop app on macOS and Windows



Facebook is releasing a standalone Messenger desktop app on macOS and Windows. The new app comes at a time when millions of people around the world are stuck at home due to the coronavirus outbreak. The timing is right, too, as videoconferencing apps such as Zoom, Skype and others race to offer the best experience for all the folks working at home. It brings some obvious (albeit minor) advantages, like having Messenger in a window of its own and not having to track your browser tabs. Facebook's list of features for the standalone Messenger app doesn't differ much from the web-based Messenger experience. You still get free, unlimited group video calls, which sync across mobile and desktop platforms. And standalone apps are typically faster and more responsive than apps that run in your browser.


2020. Facebook makes Messenger for iOS faster and lighter



The new (built from scratch) version of Messenger for iOS is now a smaller download, with smaller updates, that launches faster than before. As Facebook points out, "a faster start time may not matter as much if you only open an app once or twice a day, but it makes a huge difference when you open an app many times a day." More precisely, Facebook claims Messenger now loads twice as fast (compared to the previous iOS version), and is just one fourth of its original size. Some features are temporarily unavailable due to this change, but Facebook says it'll try to bring them back "soon."


2017. Facebook Messenger adds plugin for business websites



Facebook Messenger is coming to business websites. The new plugin allows customers to talk directly with businesses on their websites using Messenger, and continue those conversations across web, mobile and tablet devices. Not only does the ability to use Messenger mean the business is making itself available within an application that now reaches some 1.2 billion monthly users and growing, the Messenger platform also supports features like payments, bots that understand natural language, and rich media, among other things. Like other web chat systems, the Messenger chat plugin is designed to hover over top the business’s web page, and is indicated by the familiar, blue Messenger icon.


2016. Facebook Messenger gets group video calling


Facebook Messenger just added group video calling. The chat app now allows groups of up to six users to make video calls directly from their messages. The feature, available now to anyone with the latest version of the app. Starting a group call works the same way as it does for one-to-one video calls in the app: tapping the camera icon in the top right corner while in a chat will begin the video call. Facebook has limited the calls to groups of six, though up to 50 other participants to join in without video once the limit is reached. Recall that Messenger's bro WhatsApp added only one-to-one video calling last month.


2016. Facebook Messenger adds end-to-end encryption



Facebook Messenger chats can now be secure with the help of new feature - "secret conversations". Once you have enabled Secret Conversations, Messenger will encrypt conversations, preventing any unauthorized party from decoding your chats.  In addition to texts and photos, Facebook has put the encryption layer on stickers as well, but videos and GIFs are not included. Furthermore, the feature doesn't work for group chats, and it needs to be turned on for each individual conversation.  Facebook is also offering users Snapchat-like ability to have their messages self-destruct after a specified duration. To get these features, you need to ensure Messenger app is updated on your Android phone or iPhone. There's no word on what happens to Windows Phone (or Windows 10 Mobile, as they like to call it now) users.


2016. Facebook Messenger adds group calls



Facebook Messenger users now can start a group VoIP audio call from any group chat. Just tap the Phone icon, select which of the group chat members you want included and they’ll all receive a Messenger call simultaneously. If you miss the initial call but it’s still in progress, you can tap the Phone icon in the group chat to join the call. At any time you can see who’s on the call and send another ping to anyone who hasn’t joined. The maximum number of participants in a call - 50.


2016. Facebook Messenger allowes to build chatbots



Facebook Mesenger will now allow businesses to deliver automated customer support, e-commerce guidance, content and interactive experiences through chatbots like Kik, Line and Telegram that have their own bot platforms. Zuckerberg explained that with AI and natural language processing combined with human help, people will be able to talk to Messenger bots just like they talk to friends. Through the Messenger Platform’s new Send/Receive API, bots can respond with structured messages that include text, images, links and call to action buttons. These could let users make a restaurant reservation, review an e-commerce order and more. You can swipe through product carousels and pop out to the web to pay for a purchase. A new persistent search bar at the top of Messenger will help people discover bots.


2015. Facebook launched enterprise messenger



Facebook at Work, the version of Facebook designed for chatting with colleagues on a private social network, now has its own chat client as well. Somewhat like Facebook at Work’s version of Messenger, the new Work Chat app, as it’s called, allows coworkers to message each other individually, participate in group chats, share photos and videos, make voice calls, and even use stickers. The Android app is already available, and the iOS version is in the works and will arrive soon. The enterprise version of Facebook looks a lot like the consumer version of Facebook, and includes its own website as well as Facebook at Work mobile applications for iOS and Android. Employers can set up new accounts for their staff to use on the platform, and users can choose to link their personal and work accounts together. The service also allows for other business use cases, like document sharing, discussions, announcements, groups, project collaborations, events, and more.


2015. Facebook Messenger gets free video calls



Facebook Messenger has launched free VOIP video calling over cellular and wifi connections on iOS and Android in the U.S., Canada, UK, and 15 other countries. Facebook’s goal is to connect people face to face no matter where they are or what mobile connection they have. With Messenger, someone on a new iPhone with strong LTE in San Francisco could video chat with someone on a low-end Android with a few bars of 3G in Nigeria. Facebook first introduced desktop video calling in partnership with Skype in 2011, but eventually built its own video call infrastructure. Bringing it to mobile could Messenger a serious competitor to iOS-only FaceTime, clunky Skype, and less-ubiquitous Google Hangouts.


2015. Facebook launched dedicated web interface for its Messenger



Facebook has launched Messenger.com - a dedicated chat interface for Facebook Messenger. You can still send messages from Facebook.com as always, but Messenger.com could become a favorite of busy users concerned with productivity, or those that use Facebook to chat with friends but don’t like the social content chaos of its main site. The Messenger site features a list of your threads on the left, with a big, clean, white chat window on the right. You can use most of the mobile app’s features from here, including audio and video calls, stickers, and photos. For now it lacks the ability to record and send audio messages, instantly send a photo from your web cam, or use the new Messenger platform content sharing apps. But just like splitting Messenger’s app off from Facebook on mobile, doing the same on the web could give the company more room to pack in bonus features that differentiate it from SMS and other chat apps.


2015. Facebook wants to replace business2customer email by its Messenger



Facebook is aiming to use its Messenger to reinvent communication between customers and businesses. The idea is that people hate touch-tone phone tree customer service calls. Endless email threads are annoying too. People would rather just text asynchronously in a single chat thread. To allow that Facebook is working with an initial set of partners including Everlane and Zulily to change how people contact them. For example, if you buy something through Everlane, but want to modify, track, or return your order, you’ll be able to contact the business through Messenger. And rather than getting individual emails about order confirmation and your order shipping, you’ll be able to opt to get those messages in Messenger. Customer support will be permitted over Messenger thanks to an integration with ZenDesk. Businesses that already use live chat systems for customer support will be able to run that communication over Messenger.


2014. Facebook Messenger adds video messaging



Facebook has updated its Messenger app for iOS and Android devices, giving users the ability to record and send 15-second video messages. The world of instant messaging is becoming increasingly important as IM apps replace SMS text messages. Not only are IM apps more versatile - you can send pictures and now videos, rather than just words - they're also cheaper. Unlike SMS, which charges for each message, the only cost for instant messages is the price of your data allowance. Even better, if you're connected to Wi-Fi, every message is free.