Meta is killing its Messenger for Apple Watch app on Might 31, the corporate confirmed to TechCrunch on Thursday. Apple Watch customers who’ve the app put in are being notified that “after Might thirty first, Messenger received’t be out there as an Apple Watch app, however you’ll be able to nonetheless get Messenger notifications in your watch.”
Though you’ll nonetheless have the ability to obtain notifications for brand new messages, you received’t have the ability to reply to them and can as an alternative have to make use of your iPhone app to take action.
“Folks can nonetheless obtain Messenger notifications on their Apple Watch when paired, however beginning at the start of June they may not have the ability to reply from their watch,” a Meta spokesperson informed TechCrunch in an e-mail. “However they will proceed utilizing Messenger on their iPhone, desktop and the net, the place we’re working to make their private messages end-to-end encrypted.”
The Messenger app for Apple Watch gives lots of comfort for its customers, as you’ll be able to nonetheless obtain messages in your watch even when your iPhone just isn’t paired with the wearable. Customers are already taking to social media to voice their displeasure concerning the upcoming transfer.
It’s unknown why Meta has determined to discontinue its Messenger app for watchOS. Messenger joins an inventory of different platforms which have sunsetted their Apple Watch over the previous a number of years, together with Slack, Uber and Twitter.
The change comes as Meta’s different messaging app, WhatsApp, is working on a native WearOS app. Earlier this week, WhatsApp launched a beta model of its app appropriate with Google’s smartwatch platform. Folks utilizing WhatsApp beta for Android model 2.23.10.10 will have the ability to hyperlink their Put on OS-based smartwatch. Customers will have the ability to verify their messages on the smartwatch, and all chats can be end-to-end encrypted. Google stated that help for calls and beginning conversations can be out there when the app is obtainable to all customers.
The transfer additionally comes as Meta has been introducing some modifications round Messenger. Just a few months in the past, the corporate began testing the ability for customers to entry their Messenger inbox throughout the Fb app. Again in 2016, Fb removed messaging capabilities from its cellular internet utility to push individuals to the Messenger app, in a transfer that angered many customers. Now, the corporate is testing a reversal of this choice.
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