Messenger gets given a simple hurry up
THE world’s biggest social media platform has changed one of its most important mobile apps to make it run faster as it prepares to integrate messaging across its portfolio.
Facebook, which owns WhatsApp and Instagram, has redesigned its Messenger app on iOS to make it faster and simpler. Facebook claims the version starts twice as fast, is a quarter of the size and contains 84 per cent less code.
Messenger vice-president of engineering Raymond Endres said speed was an important factor for communication.
Mr Endres warned “a few features will be temporarily unavailable, but we’re working to bring them back soon”.
The change isn’t just about making the app quicker. Facebook is integrating messaging functions across all platforms so they can all work together.
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg outlined his vision for messaging at the start of last year. The focus will be on interoperability for the billions of users on the different apps, with end-to-end encryption and, of course, a fashionable focus on privacy.
It could be counterintuitive on the privacy front when it comes to data sharing between apps that require different levels of personal information.
WhatsApp only asks for your phone number, while Facebook has much more information on you.
We’re yet to see how the interoperability between apps and encryption will work, and Facebook’s implementation could be several years away.