Facebook brings Messenger to a standalone site for web browsers

By Jared DiPane
last updated

Messenger, Facebook's messaging platform, is now available as a standalone service on the web. In the past users had to use Facebook's website to message their friends and family, but starting today they can do so without all the extra distractions. Facebook recently held a conference in which they detailed various ways they planned to further tap Messenger as a platform of its own.

The new web address for the Messenger is pretty simple to remember, Messenger.com. When users access this page they will log in with their Facebook credentials and then have access to a list of conversations. Breaking it out this way allows you to message and stay in touch with the people you need, without having distractions of event notifications and various timeline posts.

Facebook does not have any plans at the current time to remove the messaging capabilities from the main site as they did on mobile. With the focus that Facebook has been putting on Messenger as a platform, the move of this to its own domain is not a huge surprise.

Source: Messenger

Jared DiPane
Jared DiPane

Jared started off writing about mobile phones back when BlackBerry ruled the market, and Windows Mobile was kinda cool. Now, with a family, mortgage and other responsibilities he has no choice but to look for the best deals, and he's here to share them with you.

106 Comments
  • This is great. Only if they can speed up messenger app for Windows phone
  • I want the calling feature on messenger as well as on WhatsApp.. Then I'll be happy as a unicorn..
  • I want it to stop fucking my battery
  • Would you be as happy as a fire breathing unicorn that has a ninja cat riding you?
  • Nope
  • It seems they will combine WhatsApp and messenger into one service.....
  • It seems you are wrong.
  • Go to messenger.com on your phone and all your reminded of is the gap between what's available on Windows Phone and what's available..... on the iPhone. Didn't see a download on PlayStore link either, so maybe it's just iOS that's ahead at the moment.
  • Instagram or WhatsApp Calling....Which is gonna be updated/introduced first on WP..?
  • WhatsApp calling. Btw what is instagram? We all know it by the name of 6tag, aren't we?
  • Lol.
  • @KillerXorg The Truth Has Been Spoken :D ;)
  • nah yo ... it's Instagram BETA!
  • Face palm for those who use Instagram Beta instead of 6tag on Windows phone..
  • People Doing Facepalms=Zero
  • Facepalm wouldn't be enough... They need to do a facenokia3310
  • More than 0
  • I use it.. Not because I like it, but because I'm not able to switch to 6tag.
  • Cool
  • Its honestly a hassle especially on phones.. Gotta wait for the app to open, and refresh which adds a good 5 seconds which doesn't seem like much until you compare that to the time it took to just click the menu up top..
  • 7 seconds to open, 2 to refresh, 4 to open the concerned chat.
    And my iOS friends have a hard time stifling their laughs.
  • This is so true. The app is super slow!
  • Seriosly? It seems pretty fast on my Lumia930
  • It opens really fast on my L930. Stop buying cheap phones and expect top performance. :)
  • Windows Phone is surviving due to cheap phones.
  • Yea but that's like saying that the Redcross is surviving because of Ebola. At the end of the day you don't support Ebola lol
  • LOL
  • 820..?
  • Not a flagship, no.
  • Am a student, not earning. 1520 broke in the 3rd month of using.
  • Because my 1020 sure as hell isn't more expensive than your 930 right?
  • Do you imply that your old 1020 is more expensive than a Lumia 930? Come on.
  • I'm telling you that my 1020 is no cheap phone and that yes it was more expensive off contract than your 930. So either your just one lucky person that has the app open in a blink or you're full of shitaki
  • It WAS more expensive. So was my ok Nokia 8890 back in the days. Is it therefore better? Nah! It doesn't open in a blink, but it goes fast and smooth.
  • Yep... I had messenger on my old 620 and it was so slow that i've come to hate the app. Now on my 535(1gb ram) is running smooth. Some ppl forget what phone they have-_-.
    That being said, im not saying that facebook couldnt do something about it. After all, there are games that got a better low memory support, than this app. Plus it is missing features.
  • Uninstall the app and reinstall it. If it didn't fix the problem, go to settings and first back up your phone, then remove SD card and rest your phone. Then login to the same Microsoft account to get all your things back. It is recommended to reset your phone after an update (won't be a pain because windows backup is so good that almost everything is restored). This increases the app performance like anything, trust me.
  • You saying that to me..?
  • Cool cool, now finally merge it with WhatsApp ;)
  • Tell me you're joking.
  • All I need is black theme for Messenger
  • Yeah,it's a battery ice cold killa
  • That's not how it works.... unless your phone's screen is AMOLED 
  • even with amoled it's not a big difference
  • I wish I could have different backgrounds for different groups. I'm constantly messaging in the wrong one, because with the keyboard up the headings are not visible.
  • same thing happens to me in whatsapp, even with different wallpapers, i guess you won't really notice the wallpaper when typing a message
  • I'm sure it would still happen from time to time, but it would definitely give a helpful visual clue.  As it is now, if I'm typing and want to check, I have to back out of the keyboard to get to the group name.  Pain in the butt.
  • We all need it. The answer is waiting and waiting... for everything in Windows phone.
  • +929
  • Still waiting for messenger in windows phone to get calling feature.. Don't have time for this bull shit.. No offence people but they need to update the messenger app for windows with the new calling feature..
  • Yea ive been using WP since 2010 and am starting to get impatient with always having to wait for feature parity either with apps on other platforms or just basic OS functions...........but at the same time I cant move away from the awesome parts of WP that just work so much better than any other platform ( wo keyboard for example)
  • Yup. Sticking with WP since 2010 too.
  • Other examples than the keyboard?
  • Let me count thy ways: Tiles instead of icons. Fresh look. Speedy interface. One-touch integration of contacts using the People Tile. Simplicity of menus. One device for everything in your life. And it's run by Microsoft. ;)....just to name a few
  • Good. Makes the non-stop tracking more visible to purple.
  • I don't want the chat option to be removed from facebook page. Many times I can scroll through news feed while chatting (while the person on other end is typing)
    Particularly when conversing with my GF. She use to type a long story about her lunch, dinner and day happenings.. Also my Gf takes a lot of time to think and carefully reply, even if I ping her just a Hi. :( :( wait... Why I'm blabbering this here... OMG :(
  • Thats when the multi window snap thing comes in handy...
  • +929
  • You are just telling that you have a girlfriend xP
  • I use black for facebook...it doesn't take as long as having the two separated, still a little slow but not as bad
  • I guess I don't need to use the Facebook app on my Surface anymore..
  • Actually, the beauty with the Facebook app for Windows/Surface is that you can pin the "Messages" pane to your Start Screen/Task Bar.  It includes most of what Messenger has including stickers.  Just open the Facebook app, go to Messages, then right click the page.  At the bottom you'll see Pin to Start :)... you never have to look at your feed this way and it's just like Messenger.
  • they should merge messenger and whatsapp
  • They could make a decent app for the Mobile OSs and REMOVE THAT FUCKING LIKE HAND
  • I Would not want the chat option removed from facebook page or app in windows. Its way convenient to chat as well browse in one place.
  • Exactly.
  • I dont mind at all. I know a lot of people who hate FB, but install just the messaging app for chat. Messaging and the whole newsfeed thing are very different activities so the split is logical for me.
  • On a phone its understandable to split the apps for real estate, but on a desktop or laptop that has more than adequate space, having to open separate tabs for going to news feed & for chatting seems a bit redundant
  • Especially since people like me don't check Facebook that often. I just want to log in and see if there are any messages or notifications, then get off. If I have to log in to check my notifications, then open another page and log in again just to check my messages, that would irritate me enough to say screw Facebook.
  • Agreed.
  • How to use this website ? I go there but it seems I can't connect ??
  • Same here.... I guess WindowsCentral might have posted their message a little too quickly, before messenger.com has been activated... Or they are slowly activating the feature region by region or something like that...
  • I'm from France there
  • I'm from Russia and I can't connect too... Messenger it's working only if use Tor Browser!
  • Bonjour la France! Je suis Québécois. So maybe it's US only for now...
  • Astuce juste en dessous ;)
  • Ouais j'ai vu ça! Merci!!
  • messenger.com/login
  • Cool!!! Thank you!!!
  • Awesome, it works! Thanks Victor!
  • I want separate apps for sending and for receiving messages. Having those integrated is distracting and confusing.
  • You can't be from earth.
  • I know, right? Can't keep track of what I was typing if all I see is a list of incoming messages begging for my attention
  • Well it sounds like people could just use the website?? I never use this messenger anyway. it's not like people wanted facebook to chat anyways. it's whatsapp, kik, skype. but never facebook, because I guess nobody I know really care about it besides posting their photos and get news.
  • Please, be kind, talk by yourself and not say it generally. I use Facebook chat a lot, I don't have whatsapp, I don't want WhatsApp, and merge it with messenger could take me away from both. Browsing Facebook and chat at the same time makes things faster for me and more people.
  • I don't use fb or messenger much... But when I do, its hard not to notice the amount of battery it saps away, almost as much as when I switch to 3g in a place with bad network (which is pretty much everywhere in India).
  • not bad, good move
  • Finally. I use FB chat cause many friends use it and FB itself not really. Now at work with slow connection don't have to wait ages for FB to load so I can chat.
    Also seems that calling works from website while my phone app doesn't have it.
  • When in battery saver mode, i don't get notifications from messenger that is the biggest let down for me.
  • It would defeat the purpose of battery saver. Seriously sometimes I ask myself if I would have been Rubino could I handle stupidity without burning comments down?
  • MS should wake up and smell the coffee; they need to do the same with Skype - the experience in outlook.com ain't good enough. Neither is that in msn.com where you can only see who is online - as that's very useful. (not)
  • Umm.... Microsoft announced Skype for Web last year and launched the preview last month LOL... way before Facebook and even WhatsApp has it. http://web.skype.com :)
  • I'm actually really happy about this. I generally open facebook.com in order to message someone, and the main site is pretty slow to refresh because of all the crap that needs to load. I'll use messenger.com a lot.
  • So... Instead of just going on facebook you'll open facebook and the messenger website? Talk about over engineering
  • Great
  • Actually it takes 6 seconds to open the app then 2 seconds to bring up the relevent convo then instantly open keboard. Not that onerous. Lumia 635
  • Cannot login.:(
  • Get ready for them to discontinue the WP app in favor of this
  • And yet if you open it on your phone browser the RSole still forces you to go download the app.....Get stuffed Zuckerberg!
  • Lately I get message sent late or something like that on my fb chat app on my phone
  • So this site thinks I am using iPhone? Lol Microsoft should solve this first. Many sites thinks that I am either using iPhone or android not wp. :-(
  • Please make voice call and video call in this app
  • Please fix bug issues of video and voice calls in this app fastly.
  • Plzz update messenger. It lacks many features plz do update it
  • ******* you first you give latest update but when I download it shows me old version.
  • Where can I find it
  • How can I get fb messenger