Facebook is forcing mobile users to use the Messenger app if they want to continue texting their Facebook friends, according to CNN.
"As we've said, our goal is to focus development efforts on making Messenger the best mobile messaging experience possible and avoid the confusion of having separate Facebook mobile messaging experiences," according to a Facebook spokeswoman Tuesday, CNN reports.
Since there are 200 million users of the app monthly, Facebook is encouraged to make the app the only way to engage with friends.
After launching the latest version in November, messaging was discontinued for those users who had downloaded the app.
The first announcement of the decision came in April and Facebook has rolled out the Messenger-only availability in other countries.
The way it will work is allowing users to use the normal Facebook app to check their posts and news feed, but when messaging the message option will switch out to the Messenger app.
And when users want to return to Facebook there is a button in Messenger to return to the original app.
The change will occur over the next few days, according to USA Today.
And it will apply to mobile users on iPhones, Android phones, Microsoft phones and iPads.
It has features that incorporate some of the aspects of other messaging apps - such as a Snapchat like photo sharing, as well as video sharing, according to TechCrunch.
The Messenger is also supposed to allow faster responses than the main Facebook app, according to Fox. Which is why Facebook wants to force the migration of chatting to a separate app and allow better performance of the apps.
About 12 billion messages are sent each day, and the company has seen an increase in mobile users by almost 30 percent compared to June 2013, according to Fox.
