San Francisco: Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has announced that it will shut down its Messenger desktop applications for both Mac and Windows by December 15, 2025. This move will impact users who currently rely on the desktop versions to access their messages.
According to Meta, after the shutdown date, users will no longer be able to use the desktop app for messaging. Instead, they will be required to switch to the web-based versions of Messenger available at messenger.com or facebook.com to continue their conversations.
The company has assured users that they will receive notifications well before the shutdown to help them save their chat histories.
Meta has also encouraged users to activate the "secure storage" feature and set a PIN for additional protection of their conversations, ensuring that their data is safe. Following the December 2025 deadline, the desktop apps will be fully disabled, and users will be urged to uninstall the applications from their systems.
While Meta has not provided specific reasons for the shutdown, industry experts speculate that the decision may be driven by the relatively low usage of the desktop version and the company's increasing focus on mobile and web platforms.
These changes align with Meta's broader strategy to consolidate services on more frequently used platforms.
Experts have also advised users to back up their chat history immediately to avoid the risk of losing important data once the desktop apps are no longer functional.