Meta to end Messenger.com web chat, move users to Facebook
Meta will end messaging on messenger.com from April 2026, redirecting web chats to Facebook Messages while mobile Messenger remains available
Meta has announced it will officially end the Messenger.com website for messaging in April 2026, effectively pushing users to chat on the web via Facebook instead.
In its Help Center update, Meta said it will discontinue messaging on messenger.com from April 2026 onward. After that, anyone who wants to send and receive messages in a web browser will need to use Facebook’s messaging interface.
Meta says once Messenger.com is discontinued, the system will automatically redirect users to facebook.com/messages so they can continue conversations immediately. Alternatively, users can use the Messenger mobile app on smartphones.
For users who use Messenger without linking to a Facebook account, Meta says they will only be able to continue conversations via the mobile app.
However, users will still be able to restore chat history on any platform using the PIN they set when they first created a backup in Messenger, and they can reset the PIN if they forget it.
This change comes only a few months after Meta ended the standalone Messenger desktop apps for Windows and Mac, a move that had already signalled the direction, as Meta had been redirecting desktop users back to Facebook’s website rather than Messenger.com.
Software engineer and reverse engineer Alessandro Paluzzi was the first to spot the update. Meta has also started showing pop-up notifications to users on both the Messenger website and the Messenger app.
The change has upset many users. TechCrunch reported that people have complained on social media that they do not want to depend on Facebook’s website to chat on a computer again—especially those who have already deactivated their Facebook accounts.
Even if this gradual shutdown of Messenger platforms frustrates users, TechCrunch noted that, from a business perspective, it reduces Meta’s maintenance costs by leaving it with fewer platforms to support.
Messenger originally launched as “Facebook Chat” in 2008, before Facebook (now Meta) spun it out into a standalone app in 2011. For years, the company positioned Messenger as separate from Facebook, even removing chat from Facebook’s main mobile app in 2014 to push people to download Messenger. However, Meta shifted strategy in 2023, beginning to merge Messenger back into the Facebook app again.
