A month ago, I met an old friend of mine. He was fiddling with his phone with an irritating look on his face. When I asked him the reason, he replied ‘I don’t want to use the Messenger app. I just want my old Facebook back’.
So, Facebook has made some big changes in its mobile app. Earlier, user can reply to their message from the Facebook app itself, but now you need to download an additional app called Messenger, to send and receive Facebook messages.
And like most Facebook updates, people don’t like this one either. Why download an extra app, when you can do the same thing, from the existing one. The Messenger app is going to eat your phone resources and has some very bad privacy policies.
There are few workarounds on the internet, to disable the Messenger app. Like installing the older version of the Facebook app or canceling the download in half way. But they don’t work well in the long run.
But thankfully, a Redditor FreemanAMG has come up with smart workaround to disable Facebook Messenger. Though, this only works on Android and requires ROOT.
Send Facebook Messages Without Messenger
The process is simple.
Install Facebook messenger app like you normally do and then freeze it using this app. Now that the Messenger app is frozen, you can reply to your messages directly from the Facebook App. Disabling the Messenger app from the settings won’t work.Â
Check out this animated gif.
What if I Don’t Have a Root Access?
Freezing Android Apps require root. So non-rooted user can, either use Facebook mobile site i.e m.facebook.com or opt for a third-party Facebook app like Metal for Facebook.Â
In fact, I highly recommend not using the Facebook official app as it’s widely known for huge battery drain and shady privacy policies. But if you use Facebook in your mobile browser, then they can not access your contacts or SMS. And you can also send Facebook messages directly from mobile sites. More info here.
To get push notification for your messages, you have to manually turn on chrome notification (Chrome > Settings > Site Settings > Notification > Allow Facebook) and Facebook Push Notification (Account settings > Notifications > Mobile > Turn On).
(If you are looking for Facebook messenger alternative then click here)
