When Facebook spun off Messenger as a separate app, it was a no-brainer. Facebook had long planned to make itself the default messaging service for people to use in place of SMS, email, and instant messaging. Having multiple messaging solutions seems pretty clumsy in the age of connectivity and with Facebook being the one network that almost everybody online is connected on, it seems like an obvious solution. It was a no-brainer and a brilliant idea. Unfortunately it hasn’t caught on.
The latest update to Facebook Messenger app features notices to let people know not only whether the message has been read but also, if it’s a group message, which of the group members have actually seen or read the message. The Messenger app is more functional, more ubiquitous, and more accessible than BlackBerry Messenger or any other messaging app out there yet hardly anybody uses it.
People are still beholden to their own preferred communications channel. Hardcore BlackBerry users are still locked in to BlackBerry Messenger, citing groups, privacy and peer connections as reasons to stay on the network. Non BlackBerry users tend to use iMessage, WhatsApp, or Line for text messaging. And of course, there’s SMS, which is old, not as fun or functional, but available on every single mobile phone on the planet.
Few people see Facebook as a messaging platform. Many Facebook members don’t even send messages to each other through Facebook’s email, chat, or messaging services, they instead write on other people’s walls. Although everyone on Facebook has their own Facebook email address, hardly anybody gives them out. It’s as if Facebook Messenger is invisible. Ironic, given Facebook’s standing as the world’s most popular social network with over 900 million users.
Will Facebook Camera suffer the same fate?
