I Messenger App For Mac

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Apr 01, 2020  Download Messenger for macOS 10.12 or later and enjoy it on your Mac. ‎Made for big screens and close connections. Get access to free. texting, and high-quality voice & video chat built specifically for desktop. First of all - it is amazing how I can use Messenger app on my MacBook because I wouldn't like to have an iPhone and laptop at. An important part of the Mac experience is the Messages app, which allows you to iMessage your friends, family, and co-workers, and even use SMS if you have configured an iPhone to forward SMS messages over to your Mac. Sometimes, you may have a reason to look into when you received or sent a certain message, and fortunately for you, macOS comes with a way to view a time stamp of when the. Apr 30, 2019  A screenshot of the Windows version of the app reveals that it will look rather similar to both Skype and Apple's own Messages app on Mac. Facebook said Messenger Desktop will.

It’s been almost a year since we first heard that Facebook Messenger would be coming to the Mac, and now it looks like it’s finally arrived at an ideal time for those who are looking for better ways to stay in touch with friends and family in the midst of social distancing requirements around the world.

To be fair, we knew that Facebook Messenger for Mac was coming soon — a stealth release appeared on the App Store in France earlier this month, along with the App Stores in Australia, Mexico, and Poland, but Facebook made it clear that wasn’t a full launch and declined to offer information on when it would be available in other countries. Photos for mac download.

It’s a bit unclear whether today’s release was in Facebook’s original plans, but in announcing the new desktop app (which is available for Windows users too), Facebook noted that “over the past month, we saw more than a 100% increase in people using their desktop browser for audio and video calling on Messenger,” which isn’t surprising as more and more users began remaining home on their laptops and desktop PCs rather than using their iPhone, iPad, or other smartphone or tablet.

What’s New

Facebook Messenger For Mac Desktop

The new Messenger app for Mac offers unlimited and free group video calls, so it’s a good alternative to other services like Zoom, which is struggling to address several privacy and security issues, or even FaceTime, which as we reported earlier this morning is having some problems of its own as a result of the iOS 13.4 update.

By comparison, Facebook Messenger promises to offer video chats for up to 50 participants with no specific time limits, whereas FaceTime maxes out at 32 people — and presents them in a somewhat awkward floating view instead of a grid — and Zoom only allows for 40 minute group calls unless you’re willing to shell out $15/month for one of their paid plans.

App

One of the obvious benefits of a desktop app is that you’ll be able to get more reliable group video calls on a larger screen, but Facebook also adds that you’ll get better support for multitasking and notifications, both of which were sort of possible when using Facebook in Safari or another browser, but should be much more robust in a standalone native app.

Of course, everything syncs across the mobile and desktop versions of the app, and you also get the ability to chat with any of your friends or family members who already have Facebook accounts, although strictly speaking it’s not necessary to have an active Facebook account to use Facebook Messenger. There’s also support for features like animated GIFs and macOS Dark Mode, the latter of which isn’t available in the web app, even if your browser otherwise supports it.

Under the Hood

According to earlier reports, it looks like the new Facebook Messenger app is using the Electron framework to basically port the code from the web app into a standalone native app wrapper. This is the same technique used by other popular apps like Slack, but it’s not the Catalyst port of the iPad app that some were expecting.

In the end, however, that probably makes little difference, since Facebook Messenger is largely a self-contained app anyway and doesn’t require a lot of special integration with macOS. There’s naturally basic support for doing things like dropping photos into a conversation, either from your desktop, Finder, or the Mac Photos app, along with bringing up a standard file browser for inserting attachments. It also takes advantage of the standard macOS notification frameworks, rather than having to tie in through a browser or extension.

Despite its use of Electron, the performance of the native app does seem to be considerably speedier than the browser-based version, however, even on older Macs. Facebook recently gave its iOS app a big speed boost, so they may have added some similar efficiencies here as well.

Facebook Messenger for Mac is available as a free download on the Mac App Store.

Read Next:Need to FaceTime Family Members with Older iPhones or iPads? DON’T Install iOS 13.4

Facebook Messenger is coming to the Mac (and Windows) later this year. The company is set to announce the new app at its F8 conference at 1 PM ET, but tipped the hat slightly early thanks to a blog post published too soon. iGeneration first spotted the (now-removed) announcement.

There isn’t much to go on right now apart from one screenshot of the Windows version of the app, which if you squint looks an awful lot like the Skype desktop app.

Facebook Messenger for Mac will offer the same feature set as the mobile version, including group video chat. From the blog post:

We’re also launching a desktop app for Messenger that’s available for both Windows and MacOS. People want to seamlessly message from any device, and sometimes they just want a little more space to share and connect with the people they care about most. You can download Messenger Desktop — and enjoy the same features as the app on your phone — like group video calls, collaborate on projects or multi-task while chatting in Messenger. We are testing this now and will roll it out globally later this year.

Facebook will unveil the new Messenger Mac and Windows apps as part of a wider announcement of new Messenger features. Facebook is currently undergoing a transition to make all of its messaging services across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp integrated and end-to-end encrypted. This work is set to be completed in 2020.

In the nearer term, the company is announcing updates to Facebook Messenger for iOS including faster performance, dramatically smaller file size, and new features like a virtual lounge where several people can watch the same video together.

Messenger App For Macbook

We’ll have more coverage when Facebook’s conference, F8, kicks off officially in a few hours.

Messenger For Macos

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