Meta Messenger: Facebook’s parent company Meta has officially announced that it is going to completely shut down Messenger’s desktop apps for Mac and Windows from December 15, 2025. After this date, users will be redirected directly to the Facebook website for messaging. This means that Meta will no longer provide its users with a dedicated desktop app experience that was active for many years.

Revealed in the report

According to AppleInsider report, Meta has started sending in-app notifications to users before the app is closed. The company is giving about 60 days time to the users so that they can shift to the new system. After this, login to Messenger desktop apps will be completely blocked. Meta has also advised that when the app stops working, users should uninstall (delete) it.

Meta’s support page reads, “The Messenger app for Mac is being retired. After this, you will no longer be able to login to the app and will automatically be redirected to chat on the Facebook website.”

Meta’s move toward web-based messaging

Meta’s move is a continuation of its transition to Progressive Web App (PWA) last year, reflecting the company’s larger strategy toward a browser-based experience. After this change made in September 2024, Meta is now focusing its messaging service completely on the web.

Although Windows users can still use Facebook’s desktop app, both Mac and Windows users will have to go to Facebook.com to access Messenger.

To ease the transition, Meta recommends users activate secure storage of their chat history, set a PIN to keep encrypted messages safe, and confirm their settings by going to Privacy & Safety > End-to-End Encrypted Chats > Message Storage. With this, users will be able to keep their chat history safe on all devices.

Disappointment to users

This decision may be disappointing for many users, especially those who used to do multitasking and professional chatting with desktop apps during work. However, Meta says that core features like encrypted chat, media sharing and secure messaging will still be available on the Facebook web version.

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