Facebook has published a new free app for iPhone and Android, Facebook Messenger, that unbundles its private message service from the all-in-one Facebook app. Rather than trying to combine your entire online life into one app, it goes the other way: Messenger, when started, goes straight to your Facebook messages, so you can read and reply to them without having to navigate through all of Facebook.
Messenger also pushes messages to the forefront of your phone with optional settings that provide multiple ways for your phone to notify you that you’ve got a new message. On Android it can vibrate, blink, play a sound, or play a ringtone.
If you’ve spent as much time as I have tapping though the Facebook app impatiently trying to check messages while the Facebook app tries to load photos and notifications instead, Messenger is a very practical gift. You tap it and poof, up pops your Facebook inbox. That’s it. For me, it’s great because my Facebook inbox contains timely messages from people who want to make plans with me, but who aren’t the professional colleagues in my separate e-mail account, or the guy waiting in the car outside sending me text messages I need to see right this second. I can ignore my Facebook inbox for hours until I have the attention for it. Then, I can check those messages with one thumb-tap while doing something else in the real world. I’m much less likely to get hit by a bus thanks to this thing.
I wish more app developers would think this way: Instead of trying to combine everything on the Internet into one mobile interface, create separate apps for stand-alone functions that people perform often and want to do in a hurry. Let the phone’s home screen be the thing that contains and presents them all. Whoever coded this app at Facebook might not win geek points for programming prowess, but they’ve made Facebook more convenient for a lot of users. Can I next get an app that jumps straight to my groups?
My only skepticism is that the Messenger name might confuse potential users into thinking it’s an instant messaging app, like MSN Messenger or BlackBerry Messenger. Why not call it Messages? To any Facebook user, that would be obvious.
