Facebook Messenger might return to the main app

Facebook’s private messaging service could be set to return to the main app – here’s what we know…

You might remember that back in 2011, the Facebook mobile app split in two - one for your social media feed and Facebook Messenger. At the time, it was unexpected and confusing, and it didn’t get the greatest of responses, but people still continued to use it and now we’ve just gotten used to the idea.

Well, that might be about to change. Rumour has it that Facebook Messenger will be returning to the main app, letting you see your newsfeed and your messages all in one place.

Don’t worry, the Messenger icon won’t just disappear from your phone, but now instead of opening the standalone app, it’ll just take you to the Facebook app and open a new section, originally called ‘Chats’. That’s how things used to work before things merged, but if you can’t quite remember that far back don’t worry, we’ve slept since then too.

The word on the street is that Facebook are making this change to try to introduce a more integrated messaging experience across its services, before it unifies with things like WhatsApp or Instagram.

There are said to be thousands of developers working away to make this merger happen, and they plan to launch it later this year or early next year.

App researcher, Jane Manchun Wong, spotted the app and was the first to start letting everyone know about it, and in a follow-up Tweet she notes that, at the moment, the “Chats” section only has a limited number of the normal features found in Messenger.

You’re able to send and receive messages, but video-calling and sending pictures still needs to be done through the dedicated app.

We’re excited to see what the future has in store for the messaging service. What’s your favourite thing about Facebook Messenger? Let us know in the comments!