Meta has decided to discontinue the standalone desktop apps for Windows and macOS for its popular messaging app, Messenger. The company announced that these apps will officially be shut down on December 15th.

There will be no desktop version of the Messenger app

Starting today, users will no longer be able to log in to the Messenger desktop app and will be automatically redirected to the Facebook website. Meta has not made any official statement regarding its decision.

Users using the desktop apps will receive a notification in the app when the deprecation process begins. Users have a 60-day period before completely deprecating the Messenger app. After this 60-day period expires, the user will be blocked from using the app and will be advised to delete it.

Meta recommends users take some precautions before switching to the web version. The company recommends users enable secure storage and set a PIN to secure their chat history. Once users migrate to Facebook.com, their chat history will be available on all platforms.

To check if secure storage is enabled, users can click the settings icon above their profile picture and then go to “End-to-end encrypted chats” under “Privacy and security.” Then, click “Message storage” to check if the “Turn on secure storage” option is enabled.

So, what are your thoughts on this? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below.