Meta is retiring its separate Messenger website, which looks to be another sign of the company stepping back its plan to create an integrated messaging back-end, in which all of its various messaging platforms would have been interconnected.
Messenger users are being notified of the change, with a pop-up appearing in the app, and on the website, which explains that messenger.com will be going away on April 2026.
As per Meta: “Starting April 2026, messenger.com will no longer be available for messaging. The Messenger desktop app is also no longer available. You can use facebook.com/messages to continue messaging on web.”
So you’ll still be able to send and receive messages on the web, but that will be integrated into Facebook, as opposed to via a separate Messenger platform.
“After messenger.com goes away, you will be automatically redirected to use facebook.com/messages for messaging on a computer. You can continue your conversations there or on the Messenger mobile app. If you currently use Messenger without a Facebook account, you can continue your conversations on the Messenger mobile app.”
Meta also shut down the separate Messenger desktop app for Windows and Mac in October last year.
It’s a significant shift in support for Messenger, though it will give Meta fewer platforms to maintain, reducing cost and labor time.
Though as noted, it does also seem like the latest step in Meta’s changing approach to messaging, and how it looks to facilitate this as a separate function.
For years, Meta had been working on a plan to integrate Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram Direct into a single back-end infrastructure, which would then enable users of each app to access a universal inbox, with all of their combined messaging threads across each platform available in one place.
But then, in 2023, Meta announced plans to reintegrate messaging back into Facebook, making it a bigger focus for engagement in the main app, while it also added a separate DM inbox for Threads last year, which seems to run counter to its messaging integration plan.
Because why add another platform if you’re still working to meld the others together, and why bring messages back to the main app, if you’re working to build them as a separate, combined entity?
It could be that Meta has abandoned this push because it no longer feels that it needs it, with its long-running battle against the FTC now, seemingly, in its rear-view.
The FTC has been seeking to force Meta to divest WhatsApp and Instagram, due to its view that Meta had used these acquisitions to quash competition in the market, and maintain dominance over the digital ads space. A Federal Court judge ruled against the FTC’s claim last year, but with the case running for over seven years, it had been a significant concern, which had seen Meta potentially seeking to combine its messaging systems in order to protect itself against the prospect of the ruling going against it.
Because if all of its messaging tools are melded together, then separating WhatsApp and Instagram would be impossible, so even if Meta was forced to divest the two, it likely wouldn’t be able to, and Meta would then be able to build a defense against this order.
But with Meta winning the case, which had seemed likely for some time, maybe it no longer feels the need to implement this as a fail safe, which is why it’s now moving away from separate messaging tools, and looking to reintegrate messaging into each of its separate apps (I’ve asked Meta for more info on whether the integration plan is still going ahead.)
Either way, the separate Messenger app is going away, and users will have to message people on Facebook instead.
Which most probably already do anyway.
