So no chat from the desktop website? Well, I can just as easily stop using that bullshit.
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 …
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Friday 3rd June 2016 09:32 GMT 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.
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Friday 3rd June 2016 10:29 GMT 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.
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Friday 3rd June 2016 13:12 GMT DorkyCat
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.
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Friday 3rd June 2016 12:22 GMT 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.
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Friday 3rd June 2016 13:07 GMT 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.)
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Friday 3rd June 2016 16:31 GMT 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...
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Saturday 4th June 2016 21:30 GMT 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.
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Thursday 9th June 2016 12:48 GMT 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