Facebook has now made it mandatory to have a Facebook account if people want to sign up for Messenger, technology news portal VentureBeat has said. Previously, those who wanted to use the Messenger or Messenger Lite app had an option to punch-in a phone number instead of an account. It could be problematic to those who do not want to use Facebook, or deleted their FB accounts due to several ongoing data-related controversies, but were using Messenger to connect with friends and family.
‘If you’re new to Messenger, you’ll notice that you need a Facebook account to chat with friends and close connections. We found that the vast majority of people who use Messenger already log in through Facebook and we want to simplify the process. If you already use Messenger without a Facebook account, no need to do anything,’ a Facebook spokesperson was quoted as saying. Reportedly, some Messenger users said that they have got an error message saying that their account has been restricted.
Facebook rolled out an option to sign up for Messenger without having a Facebook account in June 2015 for users in the US, Canada, Peru, and Venezuela. Those who wanted to sign up were allowed to use photos and names as forms of login identification. VentureBeat says that the change could be linked with the Facebook’s vision of unifying all its apps, which include WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger.
Earlier this year, company CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, “People should be able to use any of our apps to reach their friends, and they should be able to communicate across networks easily and securely. We plan to start by making it possible for you to send messages to your contacts using any of our services, and then to extend that interoperability to SMS too.”
Facebook has 1.62 billion daily active users (DAUs) on average (for September 2019), and 2.45 billion monthly active users (MAUs). Facebook estimates that around 2.2 billion people use Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, or Messenger every day on average, and around 2.8 billion people use at least one of our Family of services each month. WhatsApp has more than 1.5 billion active monthly users, Messenger has over 1.3 billion, and Instagram has over 1 billion active monthly users.
