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It’s been nearly a year since Facebook first announced that they’d be making available beta versions of their Android app, for those looking to live on the bleeding edge of mobile development. The beta program allowed participants to test new versions of the app, sometimes months before it became available to the public.
Today, Facebook has announced that they’re once again opening up their beta program, this time for their standalone messaging app, Facebook Messenger. Instructions on signing up are easy peasy, just keep in mind that early versions of the app might not be as stable as public versions.
- Join the Facebook Messenger for Android Beta Testers Google group: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/messenger-for-android-beta-testers
- Allow beta downloads by clicking “Become a Tester” in the Play Store (you need to join the Google Group before becoming a tester)
- Download Facebook Messenger from the Play Store to update your app
- Turn on automatic updates, as the beta version of Facebook Messenger for Android will be updated multiple times per week
Facebook mentions that beta testers will have access to new sharing tools in Messenger, and asks that beta testers submit bug reports should they find them. And here we thought we’d seen the last of Messenger, after Facebook went and bought WhatsApp for $16 billion a few weeks ago. Guess they have other plans for the messaging service.
[Facebook]
This will drain your battery, I guarantee it.
Gifs?
I think they need to fix both facebook and messenger apps. Both are horrible on the Android platform
WHY THE HELL DOES FACEBOOK NEED TO READ AND SEND MY SMS? ANSWER NONE
This is old news. You can use facebook messenger as your main SMS. Good God.
The SMS feature was removed back in November of last year (2013).