back to article Facebook to kill native chat, bring opt-in crypto to Messenger

Facebook will shutter its native message facility, forcing users to install the Messenger client which will sport opt-in end-to-end encryption. The change brings the ad-slinger inline with Google's Allo chat service, which will activate its privacy conscious mode only if users flick a switch. That decision won brought …

  1. Greg J Preece

    So no chat from the desktop website? Well, I can just as easily stop using that bullshit.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      That's the only reason I ever log in from the desktop, for those rare cases when someone sends me a message. Is there any way to disable messages so no one can send them to me? I'd rather do that than install a bloated app just to read one message a month.

  2. The Man Who Fell To Earth Silver badge
    WTF?

    Eh?

    "It is unknown if Facebook will ... placate the privacy crowd."

    Why would they start now?

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Too late, I've already deleted my account...

    No facebook, no smartphone, and nobody uses the phone or email anymore. My life now is splendid isolation.

    1. wolfetone Silver badge

      No man is an Island, but damnit you're trying.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      The sad thing is almost everybody I know has Facebook and uses it to keep in contact. So by not having an account one might as well not exist.

      1. Mark 85

        The FB crowd that I know don't exist. Meet them at a pub.. they go online. Invite them over, they go online. Meh... that's not real life, that's cyberlife and it ain't real.

  4. getHandle

    Facebook ain't leaving the browser

    Not on desktop, not on mobile. They can shove their bloated, intrusive apps where the sun don't shine.

  5. Dan 55 Silver badge

    Facebook offers choice between bots and spies, or quiet privacy

    Decisions, decisions...

    Do you choose the quiet privacy option by uninstalling Facebook, by the way?

  6. DF118

    Article short on details

    Will this include desktop use? My partner has been getting the Play Store autodivert when attempting to use messaging on the mobile site for a couple of days now, but it seems messaging on the desktop site is unaffected (so far at least). I tried to advise her against installing FB bloatware but as with most people she has taken the path of least resistance.

    Of course the article may be short on details because FB itself is keeping characteristically mute. A quick Google search tells me they've tried to force mass migration to their Messenger client at least once before, and people didn't like it then either.

    1. Blacklight

      Re: Article short on details

      ^^ This. Use the mobile app, get requested to install Messenger. Use the mobile website, get diverted to install Messenger. Cancel, and you can use the mobile website. If you use a mobile with "desktop view" it kind of works (but Android & Facebooks auto scrolldown/refresh keeps confusing it).

      Important messages still go via SMS, and some friends have already migrated to Signal.

      1. DorkyCat
        Meh

        Re: Article short on details

        If Facebook were turning off messaging from the browser interface, it would be a big scoop for El Reg.

        The Guardian article mentions privacy being opt in, and whilst forcing mobile users onto Messenger is definitely a (tiresome) thing, you suspect our writer is wide of the mark with his main claim.

  7. petef

    Cr-app-y

    I deleted the Facebook app from my Moto G 2nd Gen because (a) the battery would not last for a day and (b) the storage used was horrendous. Just how many kittens were filling up 240 MB? Swipe as an alternative to FB+M uses less than 3 MB. I never installed Messenger as it was reputed to behave the same. Unfortunately the relevant reviews have been lost from the Play store as it has been swamped by complaints about the recent release.

    I begrudge Facebook their right to hold a monopoly on apps for their services but what really riles is the lamentable quality of the apps.

  8. gobaskof

    Urg

    I hope the browser chat will still work on the desktop site. I work in a basement deep underground. No phone signal, no internet for non-work devices, and I don't install non work software on work machines. Facebook is very useful because I can still contact people if I need to and have them respond quickly. (Email would work except most people check it so infrequently.)

  9. Dadmin

    Make that 7!

    I downloaded a win10/Edge VM to my minty vagrant late lasterday evening song and will see what all the fuss is about! Or aboot, if you are from Can-A-Da! With W10, NOT frakbook. I have a fakebook acct just for Androidy gaming and have it squelched to the max, yet even offline the F will send a Notification, again shut off in the OS, saying I should connect to "sync" my "apps" What is that? Is that a euphemism for something dirty? You kids and your facebooks, and your snapgrabs, and your hoolahoops, and your flying skateboards...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Make that 7!

      Is this the new amanfrommars? Sometimes it's hard to tell.

  10. Mark 85
    Black Helicopters

    Encryption, Privacy, and FB.

    A contradiction in terms. I'd lay odds that FB can and will decrypt all messages to bring you "relevant information to your lifestyle".... So glad I never used this crap. Windows and certain other programs/apps are bad enough.

  11. Paul

    No Facebook apps on my devices

    Since my phone is rooted, I was able to delete Facebook app entirely off my phone.

    If I partly go through installing the app off Google Play Store, the privileges it wants are vast, it might as well want root!

    So there's no way I'm going to install their messenger app or their main app.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Been burnt before

    Had the facebook app aaaaaages ago. Stopped letting me message through it saying that I needed facebook messenger. Installed that alongside facebook app and got maybe 6 hours battery life if I was lucky.

    Someone told me that going to mobile facebook in the browser let you send and view messages. Removed both apps and used the website. Battery life massively improved by about 7 hours. No idea what their apps do but they sure won't be back on my phone any time soon.

    A strange thing I noticed as well is I keep being prompted to help 'secure my account' on facebook by entering a mobile number. I always close this as I don't want them knowing it. I recently had to install whatsapp to keep in touch with a family member. I gave it access to nothing and typed my brothers number in manually rather than letting it rifle through my address book.

    Next time I got the prompt to help 'secure my account' with my mobile number on facebook somehow the site had prepopulated my mobile number. I just assumed it had taken it from my whatsapp sign up, but then I remembered a few weeks later that I used a different phone number to verify the whatsapp account even though it was on another number. Really opened my eyes to the amount of data that they are able to collect about you

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like