Facebook shoves mobile web users toward the Messenger app
Remember when Facebook divorced instant messages from the main app and forced folks to download Messenger if they wanted a direct way to send quick missives while on the go? Well, the social network is doing something similar once again. Reports are floating about that people accessing their messages from the mobile web either isn’t possible or that there are a few annoying obstacles in place.
Android Authority writes that some mobile web users are getting a reminder that “Your conversations are moving to Messenger” with a near instantaneous redirect to the Google Play download page for Zuckerberg’s blue chat application. In our tests, it’s been hit or miss. I can still access everything from Chrome on iOS without any hiccups, but Android-owning coworkers experienced a couple of hurdles to get to their existing message threads — including a few bounces to Messenger. Zuckerberg and Co. are cranking the nag factor way up here for Android users.
Facebook’s motivation is pretty clear: It’s putting an awful lot of effort into Messenger and wants everyone to use it, whether the users care to or not. After all, there have been hints at ads making their way to the chat app. If there are ways to circumvent seeing those, people are going to use them. Until they’re gone, that is.
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