Facebook moving chats service to FB Messenger app

Users of Facebook on mobile devices may soon have to download a separate app if they want to continue chats with their friends on the social network.

A report on TechHive said Facebook is removing messages from its iOS and Android apps and asking users to install Facebook Messenger for chats with friends.

“Today we are starting to notify people that messages are moving out of the Facebook app and over to the Messenger app ... To continue sending messages on mobile, people will need to install the Messenger app,” TechHive quoted a Facebook spokesperson as saying.

Also, TechHive said Facebook users may expect notifications about the change before chat disappears from their app.

So far, it said the app update has rolled out in a few European countries.

TechHive also said that while Facebook's complementary SMS replacement apps are prepared to dominate the messaging market, Facebook first "needs all those people who casually used chat to migrate over to Messenger, which may not go as smoothly as the network would hope." — VC, GMA News