Recent news on Meta’s Messenger has been confirmed. The Messenger standalone website will be gone from April 2026. This ends Messenger as its own website, separate from Facebook. All of this was stated in an update on Meta’s help page.
The company wrote, “Starting April 2026, messenger.com will no longer be available for messaging. The Messenger desktop app is also no longer available.”
But, not to worry. This does not mean Messenger will be disappearing completely.
Meta added, “After messenger.com goes away, you will be automatically redirected to use facebook.com/messages for messaging on a computer. You can continue your conversations there or on the Messenger mobile app.”
Users won’t be starting from scratch, so chats will not disappear. Users will see the same conversations when they log into Facebook on a browser or open the mobile app.
For those who remember, Meta had already started redirecting users to the main Facebook site by shutting down the Messenger desktop apps for Windows and Mac before this. The latest change completes that process and leaves Facebook’s main site as the only way to use Messenger on a computer.
Meta is already notifying people through pop up messages on the Messenger website and in the app with details on what to do and where to go next…
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What About The People Without Facebook Accounts?
The biggest worry Reddit users who were speaking on the matter have, has to do with the people who use Messenger without an active Facebook account. Until now, they could log into the site and access their chats without having to go through Facebook. That option will end in a couple of months.
Meta addressed this directly in its support note. It said, “If you currently use Messenger without a Facebook account, you can continue your conversations on the Messenger mobile app.” In practice, this means desktop access will no longer work for them unless they sign up for or log into Facebook.
Messenger began as a feature on Facebook before becoming its own separate app and website. This decision takes it back to square one, where Messenger comes as one, with the main Facebook platform on desktop.
How Will Chat History And Security Be Handled?
Meta says existing conversations will stay available. Users who have turned on secure backups can restore their chat history using the PIN they created when setting up that feature. This applies if they change devices or reinstall the app.
If someone forgets their PIN, the company says they will have the option to reset it. The support guidance makes clear that message history will not be lost because of the website shutdown.
The removal of the Messenger website does not delete conversations. People logging into the Messages page directly on Facebook will see their chats there. The Messenger mobile app will continue to work as before.
Users aren’t too happy about all these Meta platforms slowly disappearing. A frustrated Reddit user, lunarpollen, shared on the Facebook subreddit: “They have been doing that for the past 15 years or so…
“They copy good features of popular platforms, offer them all in one convenient platform, then other platforms get bought by corporate entities who render them defunct shells, leaving FB as the sole provider of the features that used to be available on those other platforms.”
Whether or not this is true, it is important that Meta takes in user feedback. The next few weeks will tell how users receive this move, and how Meta chooses to respond.
