Facebook has unveiled an update to its Messenger app for Android aimed at getting mobile users off SMS and onto the social network's own messaging service.
Beginning on Tuesday, users no longer need a full Facebook account to access Messenger. Instead, they can sign up for the service using nothing more than their names and their mobile numbers.
Under the new system, the service verifies each new account by sending an SMS message containing a code to the user's mobile number. Once the user has entered that code into the Messenger app, the new account is activated. From then on, the phone number and a password are all that are needed to logon.
By allowing customers without Facebook accounts to access Messenger, Facebook brings the service that much closer to its goal of bringing all forms of electronic chat – including, email, IM, and SMS – under a single, unified messaging umbrella.
Of course, Facebook Messenger isn't the first such service to challenge the venerable SMS for mobile-to-mobile messaging supremacy. A variety of cross-platform alternatives are available that ride on top of a user's wireless internet service, including Apple's iMessage, Google Voice, Skype, and offerings from startups such as WhatsApp.
Beginning on Tuesday, users no longer need a full Facebook account to access Messenger. Instead, they can sign up for the service using nothing more than their names and their mobile numbers.
Under the new system, the service verifies each new account by sending an SMS message containing a code to the user's mobile number. Once the user has entered that code into the Messenger app, the new account is activated. From then on, the phone number and a password are all that are needed to logon.
By allowing customers without Facebook accounts to access Messenger, Facebook brings the service that much closer to its goal of bringing all forms of electronic chat – including, email, IM, and SMS – under a single, unified messaging umbrella.
Of course, Facebook Messenger isn't the first such service to challenge the venerable SMS for mobile-to-mobile messaging supremacy. A variety of cross-platform alternatives are available that ride on top of a user's wireless internet service, including Apple's iMessage, Google Voice, Skype, and offerings from startups such as WhatsApp.
But Facebook is banking on two things with this update. First, it reckons Messenger will be more useful to Facebook members if they can use it to reach contacts who have yet to join the social network. And second, it's hoping people who grow accustomed to using the service might be tempted to try out the other features Facebook has to offer, too.
For now, however, the new, phone-based signup system seems to be off to a rocky start. While your Reg hack was able to download the new app and successfully created a Messenger account using only a phone number, there didn't seem to be much more to do with the app from there.
For now, however, the new, phone-based signup system seems to be off to a rocky start. While your Reg hack was able to download the new app and successfully created a Messenger account using only a phone number, there didn't seem to be much more to do with the app from there.
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