Photograph: Andre Penner/APĬhat apps are only as good as the number of people using them. The more users the better, as far as Facebook is concerned. It also gives Facebook another phone number and personal data on another user. It means users who don’t want a Facebook account can still chat with their Facebook-using friends. Messenger is the hardest sell as a separate service from the main Facebook social network, but in June last year the company made it so that a user could sign up and use Messenger with just a phone number. It’s still a standalone app, and you don’t have to have anything to do with the Facebook social network to use Instagram, which means it can attract users who don’t want Facebook but do want to share photos. The overlap between WhatsApp users and Facebook users is likely very high in the West, but outside of the developed world WhatsApp has excellent penetration with users who do not use Facebook.įacebook also has Instagram, which is not as far removed from the core Facebook experience as WhatsApp, but started life as a separate photo-sharing social network and only recently became more tightly integrated with Facebook. However, it also targets users who are not interested in Facebook. On the one hand the dedicated chat app competes directly with Facebook Messenger, and potentially the low-level Facebook social network experience. It’s the same reason Facebook bought WhatsApp.

This might seem an odd decision on the surface, but viewed through the lens of a company that wants to spread its tendrils as far and wide as possible, it makes sense. The real reason that Facebook is pushing chat into its Messenger is to create another platform or silo from which Facebook can access you as a user. Facebook and Facebook Messenger are two of the most popular non-native apps on Android, alongside other Facebook-owned apps Instagram and WhatsApp.

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