Facebook Messenger finally has its own desktop app, making it easier to message and video chat with friends and family from your computer.
The app, which is now available on the Microsoft Store and Mac App Store, lets you message friends and start video calls, just like on the mobile and web versions. It also includes a dark mode, which Facebook has been rolling out as one of the new features introduced to the desktop’s redesign.
The launch of a standalone desktop app for Facebook Messenger has been a long time coming, with strong hints that Facebook was working on an app as early as 2016. Facebook later launched a desktop app for Workplace, its collaboration tool, in late 2017. But it didn’t announce Messenger for desktop until last year.
Facebook’s Messenger desktop app joins the increasingly important pool of videoconferencing tools such as Zoom, which is facing backlash for its privacy and security issues. As many of us practice social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic, video chat apps are becoming vital tools to keep in contact with friends and family. Facebook finally launching a full version of its Messenger desktop app should make it a little bit easier for users to video chat with their friends.
