Facebook has announced that its Messenger now receives over half a billion monthly users following its August launch.
The app was launched to the derision of Facebook users as it removed the instant messaging feature from the social network, instead releasing it as a dedicated app.
Last week Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, admitted that the mandatory download of a separate Messenger app was not the smoothest way to handle the transition, acknowledging that it caused “a lot of friction”.
Peter Martinazzi, director of product management at Facebook, said in a blog post: “Messenger was the first of our standalone apps, and unlike our core Facebook apps, it focused on one use case – messaging. With Messenger, you can reach people instantly.
“It is just as fast as SMS but gives you the ability to express yourself in ways that SMS can’t. You can send stickers or videos, take selfies, chat with groups and make free calls. We’ve also continued to improve speed and reliability. Updates to Messenger ship every two weeks so it continues to evolve and improve.”
The social network last month released its second app, Rooms, allowing users to converse anonymously in specialised chat rooms.
