It’s time for us all to stop thinking of Facebook as the college dorm-room idea that made it, but instead as an empire determined to have its name associated with every social move you make.
By now most people have noticed that they are no longer able to message their friends on the Facebook mobile app. Users are now forced to download the Facebook Messenger app in order to chat with their contacts.
Many Messenger users have been worried about the app’s privacy policies, since it requires access to your phone’s camera and speaker, but that hasn’t stopped it from quickly becoming the most downloaded free app on the market right now. Messenger also has multiple negative reviews and only a one-star rating in the app store, yet has still reached over 200 million daily users in just a few weeks.

So what gives?

Separate apps gives companies a chance to attract new users as well as create even more space for marketers to place targeted ads. Facebook sensed competition in popularity from apps like Snapchat and made adjustments to make sure they stay in the forefront, if not by choice then by default.

Let’s face it, regular SMS text messaging is dying but the need to communicate isn’t. Having already absorbed WhatsApp’s 450 million monthly texters and Instagram’s millions of photo lovers, Facebook is setting itself up for the long haul.

If Messenger catches on with the rest of Facebook’s mass following, this could potentially upgrade Mark Zuckerberg’s creation from social network to the primary messaging service for all smartphones. Imagine in a few years buying a phone that comes with no SMS messaging app, just Facebook Messenger — it’d be a pretty weird experience.

Facebook has previously tried to create spinoffs such as Paper and Slingshot but neither have really caught on. Since that strategy didn’t work, it has now deployed a more forceful approach. Ironically, the company that rose to power because of its ability to place the choice of content in the consumers’ hands is now taking our options away.

This shift in attitude shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. Zuckerberg discussed this new trend of covering various social experiences in his fourth-quarter earnings conference call back on Jan. 29 according to ComputerWorld.com.

“If you think about the overall space of sharing and communicating, there’s not just one thing people are doing,” said Zuckerberg. “People want to share any type of content with any audience.”

Standalone apps seem to be the trend of 2014. Foursquare also recently divided into two, transforming its main app into a review and suggestion service similar to Yelp, and designating check-ins to its new little brother app, Swarm.

Expecting users to embrace such a radical change is a luxury Facebook has earned, but less popular apps like Foursquare haven’t. Whether we like it or not, Facebook has become somewhat of a necessity, so it has the power to make big changes without losing many users.

You may not like the split in your favorite app, but from a business standpoint, it makes sense and frankly, you don’t have a choice. It is now clear that Mark Zuckerberg is thinking on the level of powerhouses such as Google and Amazon, and Facebook is willing to sacrifice a few early complaints for the bigger picture.

Aarick Knighton is a junior information management and technology major. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at adknight@syr.edu and followed on Twitter
@aarickurban.

Published on August 28, 2014 at 12:26 am