How many reviews are there compared to how many people use the app? Probably such a small number that no dev should care about the reviews.
Edit: Actually, it has a 3-star average review rating.
Last edited:
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Facebook Turns Messenger Into a Platform, Allows Third-Party iOS App Integration
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
How many reviews are there compared to how many people use the app? Probably such a small number that no dev should care about the reviews.
Edit: Actually, it has a 3-star average review rating.
iMessage is sucky? By saying that I assume you don't value privacy? I'm not a big fan of Facebook or their respective services, but what I believe really caused a riot was that they split a core functionality of the original app in order to simply make people use two separate apps. Facebook Messenger on its own is probably not a bad messaging platform, but the outrage most likely stems from how it was created and the company behind it.
Telegram is excellent for cross-platform, and unlike Facebook, it doesn't mine your data.
Luckily though, for those rare occasions when you need to use Facebook, the mobile site is actually perfectly adequate.
Plenty of things have come after Facebook.
Facebook just celebrated its 11th birthday.
If you're asking what will replace Facebook... that's the billion dollar question. No one has been able to do it yet.
what a pile of crap.
why did they break messenger away from FB? What a dumb idea, I dont know anybody that likes it as a separate app.
why did they break messenger away from FB? What a dumb idea, I dont know anybody that likes it as a separate app.
yep, me too. Now I talk to with friends my friends instead of messaging them. I hang out and share stories with them instead of reading their postings. My life seems better somehow.
And I'm not saying a messaging function on Facebook isn't a good thing. I like it a lot on the web version of Facebook. And I was more than happy with it when it was part of the Facebook app. As someone who has lived on 3 continents and has Facebook friends on every continent (well I am still waiting to find a friend in Antarctica) I do appreciate a good cross platform solution. I did even have/use WhatsApp when I was in South Africa for several months. But when I'm based back in the US, I just don't have a need to use it or anything other than iMessage on a frequent basis.
I certainly wouldn't mind it if Facebook had released a separate messaging app for those who message heavily. And it would be fine if they wanted to add all of these features and extra tie ins to other apps within that app. But I don't see why Facebook couldn't have just left the ability to send an occasional message within the main app as well (like they did initially before forcing the use of the separate app). I just find it really annoying to have all of the app switching going on.
Heck, for those who really like everything Facebook does, I would even support them introducing a phone with an operating system with Facebook fully integrated into it. I bet that would sell like hotcakes!
But for those who aren't fully immersed in the Facebook experience, it would be nice to still be able to have a simple quick text exchange within the main Facebook app without having to load extra crap on my phone. I certainly won't be loading anything to allow me to send a high fiving cat gif!
You'd have a point if all FB users had iPhones, and all of them had installed FB messsenger. Here in the real world though, as long as people have iPhones without messenger, any dev that works within the messenger framework will be restricting the reach of their product to just a fraction of the iPhone users they could reach if they developed outside the framework. Also, they will be associating their brand with a widely hated product.
----------
You can't rate it without downloading it... and if you look a the reviews, you'll find it does consistently gets 1 stars from a large portion of reviewers.
Are you REALLY SURE you haven't? Facebook is sneaky with the "don't not give us all your base" permissions.
Facebook has always been the middleman collecting information on users to log and sell.
And yet it's still plenty relevant to tons of people that use it.
----------
It really isn't widely hated among all of the users beyond the small subgroup that has some general Facebook hate or some other similar principled hate about an extra app on their device.
----------
why did they break messenger away from FB? What a dumb idea, I dont know anybody that likes it as a separate app.
Plenty of people use it just fine. Useful for many that don't want to have the full Facebook app running all the time or even don't want to install the full app but use the mesaaging capabilities often.
----------
Yes, I'm REALLY SURE. It really isn't complicated to keep it that way and to control things of this nature.
Well they basically ask about access to your contacts, pictures etc the same way other messaging platforms/apps do.
But everything you write is most likely, if not unquestionably, data mined by Facebook. Although, this obviously doesn't really seem to bother a large portion of users who simply use it everyday. It's their business model and Google isn't really any different. For some reason though, public perception is that Google is seen as a company with the laughable motto of "Don't be evil", while people simply don't seem to trust Zuckerberg. They're both cut from the same cloth.
Right, they ask and you can choose. As many other apps do and have done.
As for what you write, well, any free online service does that basically. From the times of free email and so on. So, yeah, as you essentially implied--nothing new, surprising, or really scary about it.
While you are totally within your rights to do that, they had a very good reason to have a separate app. Messenger was being used way to much for the app to be able to support that part of Facebook and run efficiently. The FB app is gluttonous enough without being a full-blown messaging service. It would be akin to having iMessage run in the Safari app. Even Google has a Hangouts app now. Hell, Google has an app for every feature they offer that is only available in your web browser on desktop.
Then I'll delete my account. I don't like it when people use Facebook as a way of contacting me anyway. My preference is e-mail or SMS/iMessage.
I don't use Whatsapp or any other stupid pointless app like it.
Haha, I'm the same way. I have friends who have my phone number who hit me up through Facebook even though I'm hardly ever on there. I assume they are at work and can have a we browser pulled up, but don't want to have their phone out.
I even have my Google voice number on my FB profile for people who want to text me.
On Android, considering the laughable security model, your option is install, or uninstall, you can't really choose what you authorize in a precise way.
The problem is in people not fully understanding what they're giving away by their seemingly "innocuous" installation, account creation and authorizations. If a government was asking the same thing, you'd have people mounting the barricades. Many that accept those kind of apps don't do it with full knowledge; if they do know what's what, I've got nothing against people actively knowingly giving away their privacy.
When corporatocracy will have come to bear; coming soon... They'll realize it.
one of Apple's added value is the fact that you pay more for privacy/security.
----------
From an app dev standpoint, breakout a monstrous app is also better.
It's up to the people to look into what they are using and doing. If they don't care about doing it, then that's their choice which isn't really much different than the choice of those to still use it all after they look into it and get whatever information about it that they want.
Well, it all really depends on their business model and what kind of history the company has. Facebook is in a pretty rough spot and really has the worst public perception in terms of users' privacy.
Point is, the criticism they've received is more than fair, but that also means that if you don't like their practices than you better stop using their services.
The main app runs as bad or as adequately as it used to, imo.
----------
You certainly have a point, but nowadays even the average joe should be relatively well informed on how Facebook operates and their stance towards privacy. It seems that most people simply don't care and so far don't see the harm. To each their own I suppose.