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Facebook Messenger Hits 500 Million Monthly Users

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A view of and Apple iPhone displaying th
A view of and Apple iPhone displaying the Facebook app's splash screen May 10, 2012 in Washington, D.C.Brendan Smialowski—AFP/Getty Images
By Victor Luckerson

Facebook’s Messenger app has reached 500 million monthly active users, the company announced in a blog post Monday. Messenger is a text and photo messaging tool that allows users to communicate with their Facebook friends in a way similar to traditional SMS texting.

Adoption of Messenger likely got a boost over the summer when Facebook began forcing users to download the app to send private messages to friends instead of using the main Facebook app. The decision garnered wide criticism and helped sink the iOS App Store review score for the current version of Messenger to one-and-a-half stars. But it seems to have worked out just as Facebook intended. In April the company disclosed that Messenger had about 200 million users, meaning the app has seen massive growth in the last half year.

Facebook recently hired former PayPal president David Marcus as its vice president for messaging products, so the company may have plans to monetize Messenger’s fast-growing userbase sooner rather than later. Facebook in October also closed its $19 billion acquisition of messaging app WhatsApp.

This Is What Your Facebook Profile Looked Like Over the Last 11 Years

The Original Facebook Group Page, 2004.
The Original Facebook Group Page, 2004. Before people realized how awesome pictures are.Courtesy of Facebook
Facebook Profile Page, 2005.
Facebook Profile Page, 2005. Back when Facebook looked a little bit like MySpace. Courtesy of Facebook
Facebook Profile Page Facelift, 2005.
Facebook Profile Page Facelift, 2005. The "the" is finally dropped.Courtesy of Facebook
Facebook Profile Page, 2006.
Facebook Profile Page, 2006. You no longer need to be reminded "this is you" at the top of your profile page.Courtesy of Facebook
Facebook Profile Page, 2007.
Facebook Profile Page, 2007. Every profile update still had to begin with "is," forcing you to talk about yourself in the third person. Courtesy of Facebook
Facebook Profile Page, 2008.
Facebook Profile Page, 2008. The wall. Courtesy of Facebook
Facebook Profile Page, 2009.
Facebook Profile Page, 2009. It only took five years for Facebook to create easy-to-find privacy settings. Courtesy of Facebook
Facebook Profile Page, 2010.
Facebook Profile Page, 2010. Facebook starts to get pretty. Courtesy of Facebook
Facebook Profile Page, 2011.
Facebook Profile Page, 2011. Zuckerberg realizes that people love pictures, usually of animals.Courtesy of Facebook
Facebook Profile Page, 2012.
Facebook Profile Page, 2012. The timeline allows you (or your parents) to trace your life from birth to death.Courtesy of Facebook
Facebook Profile Page, 2013-2014.
Facebook Profile Page, 2013-2014. Facebook introduced a new app, Paper, on Monday.Courtesy of Facebook
Facebook Profile Page, 2014-2015. Facebook updated both the newsfeed algorithm and the privacy settings.
Facebook Profile Page, 2014-2015. Facebook updated both the newsfeed algorithm and the privacy settings.Courtesy of Alex Fitzpatrick/Facebook

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