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Facebook Nixes Access To Chats Outside Of Messenger Walled Garden (arstechnica.co.uk)
Tom Mendelsohn, reporting for Ars Technica: Some smartphone users of Facebook are reporting that they're no longer able to access their messages from the mobile site, and that they're being directed towards the free content ad network's dedicated Messenger app. Users of the regular Facebook mobile app were shunted over to Facebook Messenger to access their chats a while ago. Now, folk who access the service on their phone's Web browsers, or via third-party apps such as Tinfoil or Metal, are beginning to find that they can no longer view their messages. Complaints are popping up from users who are being told by Facebook that "your conversations are moving to Messenger." Some Android users are even finding themselves automatically redirected to the download link on the Google Play store when they try and view their messages on the mobile site.
The apps are huge battery hogs - Facebook on Android is one of the worst offenders. Removing it virtually doubled my battery life.
Sigs are so 1990s. No way would I be seen dead with one.