We have been hearing about Facebook and WhatsApp marriage that is yet to happen. But speculations has been on high ends for the last week or so. Its hard to tell what’s going on and what is the status of news that broke out earlier this week because neither Facebook nor WhatsApp has commented anything about it. WhatsApp is arguably the most used application when it comes to mobile messaging. When it comes to pure one to one messaging there is hardly anyone that can compete with WhatsApp largely because of its availability on almost every mobile platform that is available there. And also because it is dead plain simple to use and serves its small purpose beautifully.
But a more important and a bit more shocking news is that Facebook has launched an Android version of its messenger that you can use without any Facebook account. Yes, that’s right. It will be the first product or application from Facebook that does not requires Facebook account. You can sign it into messenger with a mobile number. And once you are signed in you can use this application to send messages to your friends on Facebook and that without paying anything. The purpose behind this would be to build a brand name for itself when it comes to personal communications. Its an easy lure for users who already have a phone but are reluctant to switch to Facebook to have some taste of Facebook. And once they get comfortable they can move to Facebook if they want to. It works much the same way as WhatsApp does. Once installed and signed in with the mobile number the application will check from person’s contact numbers who is on Facebook or who else is using Facebook messenger at least with their mobile numbers. You can start chatting with those people in your contact lists using this messenger.
If Facebook is planning to buy WhatsApp then what’s the purpose of introducing this messenger. We can’t be sure but may be this is some kind of preparation for that acquisition. May be Facebook will merge up both products. May be? But its clear that both moves are contradictory to each other from Facebook’s perspective.
The messenger application from Facebook that runs using your mobile number is only available for Android and that too in some of the countries. The two big ones are India and Australia. India seems to be the obvious target because of its population and because the featured phones are in more quantity then Smart Phones. Facebook is planning to launch this application for featured phones as well in the near future.
