After forcing its users to install Messenger several months ago, Facebook has reached more than 500 million people using its messaging system each month.
“Messaging is an important part of how people stay connected said Peter Martinazzi, Facebook’s director of product management. “Since Messenger launched in 2011 we’ve been passionate about giving people a faster and more expressive way to communicate.”
Messenger was the first of Facebook’s standalone apps, according to Martinazzi. “Unlike our core Facebook apps, it focused on one use case – messaging.”
Martinazzi explains that with Messenger, users 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.”
