Short Bytes: On January 7th, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted an infographic on his Facebook page announcing that Facebook’s messenger app is being used by 800 million users every month. While this could seem a big number to many, I wasn’t surprised at all. We are constantly online and Messenger has become a part of your digital lives. But, this hasn’t happened on its own — it’s a result of the perfect execution of a long-term strategy by Facebook.
In 2015, Facebook made significant changes in Messenger that included video calling, ability to customize conversations with emojis and stickers, updated location sharing, money sharing and a lot more. In his Facebook post, Zuckerberg tells his own story — “It’s an important part of how I run Facebook and keep in touch with my friends and family. I use Messenger to quickly get information from engineers to make decisions. I also message a lot with Priscilla every day and probably use way too many stickers.”
Messenger is one of the top priorities of Facebook in 2016. The company swears to work hard to bring to you more and more ways to communicate with your friends and family. Facebook has already started testing M, its own digital virtual assistant. In his latest blog post, company’s VP of Messaging Products, David Marcus has urged you to do everything the Facebook’s way — as if pushing Free Basics down people’s throat wasn’t enough.
Thanks to the endless number of messaging apps, we have arrived at a point where we don’t remember phone numbers and contact details of other people. With its Messenger app, Facebook is working to eradicated your phone numbers altogether.
Last year, Facebook decided that it will now give its users an option to use sign up for the Messenger without needing a Facebook account. With Messenger, now you can make calls to a person without needing to know someone’s phone number.
“With Messenger, we offer all the things that made texting so popular, but also so much more. Yes, you can send text messages, but you can also send stickers, photos, videos, voice clips, GIFs, your location, and money to people,” Facebook writes in its blog post.
While using WhatsApp to make money isn’t Facebook’s top priority at the moment, Facebook is working hard on Messenger to open a new revenue stream for a long time growth.
Slowly and gradually Facebook is looking to take over your entire phone — wait for it — it’s just a matter of time.
Images: Facebook
Also Read: Black Hole of World Wide Web: Facebook Is Sucking The Internet In
