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Facebook on Thursday announced that it will be launching native Messenger apps for MacOS and Windows.
Facebook CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, through his official Facebook account, posted: “We're all looking for more ways to be together even while we're physically apart. So today we're launching native Messenger apps for MacOS and Windows. Group video calls and messages on our apps have surged -- Messenger use on the desktop has more than doubled in the last month. These new native apps will make the experience a lot better. I hope you enjoy!”
The tech giant’s messaging app for smartphone, Facebook Messenger is finally getting a desktop app version almost nine years after its debut. The app has been launched as Messenger witnessed a huge surge in audio and video conferencing owing to lockdowns across the globe in light of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Over the past month, we saw more than a 100% increase in people using their desktop browser for audio and video calling on Messenger,” wrote Stan Chudnovsky, VP of Messenger in an official blog post.
Facebook had originally announced the Messenger desktop apps at its F8 conference last year. This year’s conference had been cancelled due to coronavirus. Hence, the social media giant had launched the platform digitally.
Messenger’s desktop app will have all of the features from its smartphone app version including group video calls, Dark mode, GIFs, chat syncs and notification settings including mute notifications.
The Messenger app, however, has a few shortcomings as compared to its current counterparts on the market. Messenger supports up to 8 participants for a group video call participants as compared to Zoom which can support up to 50 to 100 participants.
Google recently had increased the limit for its native video-calling app for smartphones, Google duo to 12 participants. Messenger also doesn’t offer a way to easily share a URL for other people to join a call. It also doesn’t allow screen sharing for the web app, a feature provided by Facebook’s Workplace chat desktop apps.
The tech giant is also testing a few other features for its Messenger app including an ‘Auto Status’ feature similar to Instagram Threads. The ‘Auto Status’ feature lets users share information including location, weather, battery status, etc. with specific friends. It also has a feature where it lets users share emojis over their profile to show what they’re up to.
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