Messenger – Text and Video Chat for Free

Messenger is a dedicated app by Facebook for exchanging text messages and files, making photo and video calls, and playing Facebook-based games. This app is available on most platforms and now is among the most downloaded in the world.

Design and Usability 4/5

The app looks very neat, even with its new colorful icon. The tabs are simply Chats and People, letting you access chats with your Facebook friends, no matter whether you have spoken recently. Calls and chats are displayed on the same list. From Messenger, you can access other services by Facebook, including its main social service, Facebook Rooms, Facebook Gaming, and so on. Even the Stories are accessible from here.

The only issue is its performance. The app requires powerful hardware and may work slowly on older or budget devices. For these, though, Messenger Lite or the web-based Facebook Lite with Messenger integrated will be a better choice.

Key Functions 5/5

Messenger’s primary function was to exchange text messages. In addition, you can make voice and video calls with it, bith private and in groups of up to 8 members. It can connect you to your Facebook friends and leave the unfriended users behind, leaving their requests for a better time. The app has versions for most platforms, though on desktops, its full features are available via the web version of Facebook.

Along with messages from users, Messenger can send you notifications from Facebook Gaming. It also lets you share your location, send photos, videos, and audio files. All of these are stored in your Facebook cloud, so you don’t need to do anything to recover them after reinstalling Messenger.

Security 4.5/5

Like all Facebook projects, Messenger is not the one to be trusted blindly. Let’s hope the new laws and rules won’t let Facebook share users’ data around. As it uses your Facebook login and password, you should, in your turn, be the most careful to protect it from leaks by composing a strong password and changing it periodically.