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Meta is killing off Messenger’s Mac app for unknown reasons

Do you use Facebook Messenger on the Mac? Soon, your app’s going to stop working. Meta has announced that its Messenger app for Mac is being killed off entirely.

Messenger for Mac will stop working altogether within 60 days

Meta has published a support doc that states its Messenger app for Mac is being discontinued.

New users won’t be able to download the app at all, and existing users have about 60 more days of use before it stops working altogether.

Why the change? Unfortunately, no reason has been given. But users are being pushed to the Facebook website for all their Messenger needs instead.

From the support page:

What’s happening to the Messenger app on desktop?

The Messenger app for Mac is being deprecated. After deprecation, you won’t be able to log into this app and will be automatically redirected to use Facebook website for messaging.

Will I get notified about this change?

Yes. If you’re using the Messenger desktop apps, you’ll get an in-app notification once the deprecation process begins.

  • You will have 60 days to use the Mac Messenger app before it is fully deprecated.
  • Once the 60 days are over, you’ll be blocked from using the Mac Messenger app. We encourage you to delete the app since it will no longer be usable.

If you’re concerned about your message history not being saved, Meta says: “Users who haven’t enabled secure storage in Messenger should turn on secure storage and setup a PIN from their desktop app to save their chat history before moving to the web version.”

Do you use Messenger’s Mac app now? How do you feel about it being discontinued? Let us know in the comments.

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Avatar for Ryan Christoffel Ryan Christoffel

Ryan got his start in journalism as an Editor at MacStories, where he worked for four years covering Apple news, writing app reviews, and more. For two years he co-hosted the Adapt podcast on Relay FM, which focused entirely on the iPad. As a result, it should come as no surprise that his favorite Apple device is the iPad Pro.