Facebook pushing people to app they didn’t choose

Two years ago, the social-media giant forced its users to adopt its Messenger app for direct communication, a change it enforced by deactivating messages in the main Facebook app and steering users to the app. There was an uproar; some users thought Messenger violated their privacy, while others just resented having to add yet another app. Still, the plan worked; more than 900 million people use the app, roughly four times the number in 2014. But some continued to resist, exploiting a loophole to avoid Messenger. 

All they had to do was log into Facebook’s mobile website using a smartphone browser like Safari or Chrome. Now Facebook is coming after those holdouts. In some markets, the company has already blocked mobile browser access to messages on Android phones. In others, opening messages on Facebook’s mobile website gets you a warning that “your conversations are moving to Messenger” and a link to download the app. The company will extend the ban to all markets and to iPhone users in the upcoming months, it says. Facebook insists it only wants “to bring the best experiences we can” to users. The Messenger app provides more reliable notifications about incoming messages and runs more quickly, the company says.