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Facebook Messenger Hits 900M Monthly Active Users; To Get Snapchat-Like Features

Posted by msmash on from the welcome-to-facebook-world dept.

Facebook, on Thursday, announced that Messenger now has 900 million monthly active users. On the sidelines, the company also announced a couple of Snapchat-like features it is bringing to its messaging client. Alex Health, reporting for Tech Insider: Facebook executive David Marcus said that Messenger will soon let you create profile usernames and web links. The links will look like "m.me/yourusername" and let anyone quickly add you in Messenger without looking up your Facebook account. The usernames and profile links will also be available to businesses, which are starting to use Messenger as a way to deliver customer support and let you buy things through chatting. Every Messenger account will also have a scannable QR code within the app, which is exactly how Snapchat lets people share their profiles with others. Snapchat also recently added the ability to share profiles on the web with public URLs. It is worth noting that earlier this year, Facebook-owned WhatsApp app reached 1 billion monthly active users.

5 of 26 comments (clear)

  1. Part of the reason I rooted my phone by pecosdave · · Score: 3, Interesting

    was to make sure I wasn't in that number.

    This is one of the worst battery vampires around and they've bribed most U.S. carriers to make sure it's installed on phones in a way that can't be easily removed. Does a forced, can't be uninstalled copy truly count towards that number? It's sort of like dead people voting.

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    1. Re: Part of the reason I rooted my phone by Threni · · Score: 2

      No, they wouldn't be active users. Rooting your phone is overkill ; just disable it and untick the notifications box and you'll suffer no data/battery penalty.

  2. Hmmmm .... by gstoddart · · Score: 2

    The links will look like "m.me/yourusername" and let anyone quickly add you in Messenger without looking up your Facebook account

    So, any random idiot will be able to spam you without trying hard?

    Yeah, what could possibly go wrong on that one ... sorry, you should have to look it up to prove you're allowed to send to me.

    The usernames and profile links will also be available to businesses, which are starting to use Messenger as a way to deliver customer support and let you buy things through chatting.

    Just any old business gets this because they say so?

    Yeah, whatever, yet more crap from Facebook to ensure gets blocked so I don't have to deal with it. Just like I don't consent to being tracked by these assholes, I don't see why I would want any form of interaction with this.

    I'm betting the amount of unwanted messages will be epic.

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    1. Re:Hmmmm .... by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M · · Score: 2

      How about iMessage? I've never had a single unwanted message on that platform.

  3. Facebook by ledow · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Facebook app is shit and just fills up my phone (presumably with cached photos etc.) until it gets so bogged down that it literally just stops loggin in. Literally, it's quicker and easier to load up Chrome on my phone and do Facebook from there.

    Facebook messenger app - why the fuck is that separate?

    Whatsapp - currently okay. Except I paid for five years and then you just made it free and I get NOTHING for that.

    Get rid of the first two, put in a browser window that does Facebook notifications into it, and I might use it more often. Until then, it's really a website I go on when I get an email (i.e. someone's talking to me on it), and then I talk to them on WhatsApp anyway.