Facebook Messenger Is Better Than Texting, Here’s Why [Op-Ed]

COMMENTARY | Facebook Messenger is better than texting, and here’s why.

Ever since the initial evolution of cell phones, texting (or text messaging) has been the norm. Initially, cell phone companies tried to limit the amount of texting you can do in one month because they already had limits on talk time. This didn’t go over so well because some people tend to text small messages almost rapid-fire when they should just combine all of those shorter text messages into one larger one. After all, it was the text messages we were being limited for, not the number of words.

Seriously, if you still text a string of smaller messages, please stop. It’s annoying. Put as much info as you can into one text message before you send it.

Eventually, mobile phones were almost replaced with smartphones as iPhone and Android gained popularity. Early Windows phones were a pain, needing to be reset almost weekly and freezing up almost every day during the most basic functions. Thankfully Microsoft improved Windows Phone enough to make the consumer not hate it in the end.

Facebook Messenger came along a few years after smaller mobile phone companies stopped limiting text and talk, and at first it went mostly unused. After a few updates, Facebook Messenger ended up actually better than texting.

For one thing, Facebook Messenger allows a much more varied amount of information to be sent. It doesn’t split the message into smaller chunks and potentially screw up lengthy URLs or sentences, making the sender sound like Yoda from Star Wars as the pieces arrive out of order. Facebook Messenger sends it all in one clump, and even includes a thumbnail image if available.

You don’t even need to be logged into Facebook with its own mobile site app. Just log in through the Messenger and start chatting. More recent updates even give you a “chat head,” which is the Facebook user’s profile picture, to show you who’s messaging you. The only prerequisite is that you need to be friends on the site first.

Another plus is the fact that with text messages, the only way you know the other person read your message was if they responded, which could be months later. With Facebook Messenger, the app will tell you if they’ve seen it, so you’re not sitting there wondering if your text or picture message got lost somewhere in limbo because someone’s signal sucked. Better yet, now Facebook Messenger even works with Instagram. How cool is that?

Best of all, you don’t even need to have a mobile phone to use Facebook Messenger. It works right in the website as you sit at your computer. It’s right up there with the notifications. It’s actually in your private messages.

Perhaps in the future, the Voice messaging that Facebook Messenger allows on smartphones will be more stable and let you have mini conversations like a regular phone, only you don’t have to wait your turn to speak. Face it, some people get long winded when you make regular calls, and you end up just sitting and listening half of the time so you don’t look rude.

Facebook Messenger could end up replacing everything your phone does naturally, and all for free.

What do you think? Do you prefer Facebook Messenger to texting?