Facebook is launching an instant-messaging application for smartphone users, as the social network looks to take on Blackberry maker Research In Motion. and Apple in the growing mobile communications market.
The social network’s 750 million users already have the ability to send messages through the website, and on Facebook’s original smartphone app.
However, the new app adds the option to send directly to a mobile phone via SMS, and also to include location information.
Facebook Messenger’s release comes a month before Apple is due to unveil a similar product.
Attention has been focused on mobile messaging recently because some of the London rioters were known to have used it to co-ordinate their movements.
Initially launching in the US, Facebook Messenger is a free stand-alone messaging application that will allow users to send and receive Facebook messages from their mobile device.
The new service integrates with Facebook’s existing web-based messaging platform and will enable users to access all of their Facebook messages, even when they’re away from their PC.
At launch, the Facebook Messenger will only be available for Apple’s iPhone and devices running on Google’s Android software.
However, Facebook users who don’t own an iPhone or Android device will be able to send and receive Facebook messages through existing SMS text messaging technology.
The Messenger application will initially only be available to users in the US and Canada, but that the company plans to roll the apps out to other markets in the coming weeks.
Facebook is hoping the new tool will position it as the default messaging application on smartphones for its 750 million global users, as the company seeks to expand its reach beyond the desktop and into the world of mobile computing.
“Facebook Messenger is the same system, it’s the same delivery mechanism in the Facebook app and in the separate (Messenger) app,” said Peter Deng, a product manager at Facebook who worked on the Messenger service. “It’s just that the separate app has a few extra features. All your messages will still be in one place. Your conversation between you and your friends is now accessible anywhere you go.”
