Meta is shutting down Messenger’s standalone website

Meta is preparing to shut down its standalone Messenger website, according to a help page published by the company. Beginning in April 2026, the messenger.com website will no longer be available. Users who still want to send and receive messages on the web can do so using Messenger while logged into Facebook.

“After messenger.com goes away, you will be automatically redirected to use facebook.com/messages for messaging on a computer,” the help page says. “You can continue your conversations there or on the Messenger mobile app.”

If someone uses Messenger without a Facebook account, they can only continue their conversations in the Messenger mobile app. Users can restore their chat history on any platform using the PIN they entered when they first set up a backup on Messenger. If they no longer remember the PIN, they can reset it.

The change follows Meta’s decision a few months ago to shut down Messenger’s standalone desktop apps for Windows and Mac. The move appeared to be foreshadowed at the time, as Meta had already been redirecting desktop app users to the Facebook website to keep using Messenger, rather than encouraging them to use the Messenger website.

Reverse engineer Alessandro Paluzzi was the first to spot the latest change. Meta has begun notifying users through pop-up messages displayed on the Messenger website and within the app.

Many users have voiced frustration about the shutdown on social media. A common complaint is that they don’t want to depend on the Facebook website to use Messenger on the web, particularly those who have deactivated their Facebook accounts.

Although the move is frustrating for some users, it also allows Meta to cut costs by reducing the number of Messenger platforms it needs to maintain.

Messenger originally launched as “Facebook Chat” in 2008, and Facebook — now Meta — introduced Facebook Messenger as a standalone app in 2011. Over time, Meta positioned Messenger as a separate service outside Facebook, and in 2014, it removed messaging from the main Facebook mobile app to push people toward Messenger. The company later reversed course in 2023, when it began merging Messenger back into the Facebook app.