Meta to End Messenger Website in April 2026

Meta Platforms announced on Wednesday that it will discontinue its standalone Messenger website, messenger.com, effective April 2026, redirecting users to the messaging interface within the main Facebook site. The change affects desktop and web access to the popular messaging service, which has more than a billion users worldwide, and follows the company's retirement of standalone Messenger apps for Windows and Mac operating systems late last year.

According to a notice on Meta's help page, visitors to messenger.com after the shutdown will automatically be directed to facebook.com/messages, where they can continue conversations while logged into a Facebook account. The mobile Messenger app for iOS and Android will remain unchanged and fully operational, preserving all existing chats and features. For users who access Messenger without linking it to a Facebook profile, such as those using a phone number for sign-up, web access will end entirely, limiting them to the mobile application.

Meta emphasized that chat histories will remain intact and recoverable across platforms. Users can restore conversations using a PIN established during initial backups, with options to reset the...