Facebook's Messenger App: The 7 Features It's Missing

When it's not quietly compiling your phone number and the phone numbers of all your friends, the Facebook Messenger app is pretty darn useful.

Facebook Messenger was released for iPhone and Android on August 9th, and despite some privacy concerns, it has rocketed to the top of the App Store charts and to the first screen on my iPhone.

It is a very powerful communication application: From one place, you can now contact anyone in your phone book or your Facebook Friend List. It's compact and convenient, and you don't have to go through the hassle of granting the app permission to access your Facebook (because, well, the app is Facebook). In my experience, Facebook Messenger loads just as quickly as my text messages do, and the ability to instantly reach all of my contacts on their phones--whether I have their phone number or not--makes Messenger extremely useful.

There are, however, several features that are noticeably (in some cases inconceivably) missing that make Facebook Messenger a bit of a hassle to do certain things. Here are the changes I hope Zuck and the team push through for Facebook Messenger 2.0. Want to know more about how to use the app? Check out our guide to five things you need to know about Facebook Messenger.

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Phone Calling

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Even though the app is a "Messenger," I would still think that, when somebody sent me a phone number in a message, I'd be able to click on that phone number and be taken to my telephone so that I could make a call. And yet no matter how long I wait, the phone number never becomes underlined to be clickable; and no matter how many times I touch my finger against my screen, Facebook Messenger never gives way to my Telephone. Speaking of not interacting with other apps on my smartphone...

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Even though the app is a "Messenger," I would still think that, when somebody sent me a phone number in a message, I'd be able to click on that phone number and be taken to my telephone so that I could make a call. And yet no matter how long I wait, the phone number never becomes underlined to be clickable; and no matter how many times I touch my finger against my screen, Facebook Messenger never gives way to my Telephone.

Speaking of not interacting with other apps on my smartphone...

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This Feature

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Can do without it. Need it.

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Comments

[Andrew Wojtkowski]

11:22 AM on 08/19/2011

So it's a great app, but it lacks EVERYTHING that would make it useful. Makes sense to me.

[JackHoffman]

03:28 PM on 08/18/2011

All your text messages will reside on Facebook's servers. Don't forget that.

[INKDxxRUBI]

03:33 PM on 08/18/2011

Good lord, do you know how many of them I've already SENT!?! O_O And here I thought my biggest fear would've been me on a stage in front of millions while my Google search history is read aloud...

[Pema]

12:54 AM on 08/18/2011

face book is all over the place, i would like to have an answer to this
http://www.examiner.com/animal-action-in-national/facebook-spam-filters-take-aim-at-animal-advocacy-pages?fb_comment_id=fbc_10150343949521357_19137273_10150345243221357#f1cfcb220e1bf54

[Rich Phitzwell]

12:52 AM on 08/18/2011

The biggest issue I have had with fb app has always been lack of integration with business pages. Many of my clients are in the field not at an office and although its easy to post pics to a business page not through the app its a pain to manage the business page via smart phone

[Manny Ayala]

11:58 PM on 08/17/2011

I stay away from games, apps and all that other stuff on Facebook due to privacy and bug issues.. I just like to check my status, friends and family see what's going on.. FB is too intrusive..
I get my statuses from here.. They got some nice ones..
http://statusisbaddest.com/

[NoSandwiches]

11:23 PM on 08/17/2011

someone needs to fire up his "skull" drive.

[Jacque Murphy]

11:07 PM on 08/17/2011

Okay. So you're sitting at your desk thinking of what to do and you came up with this? Not everyone likes the invasion of privacy. Some of us don't want to be found.




' want to be found

[Maichel Boulis]

09:46 PM on 08/17/2011

nice
http://www.bignewsarticles.com

[Brandon Lowden]

07:59 PM on 08/17/2011

Hi Jason,

I think the order of slides 2 and 3 is flip-flopped, based on the text you've written.

Please remit to me the appropriate proofreading fee, based on your own rates.

--BML

[chedet]

04:26 PM on 08/17/2011

The current FB app for Iphone is buggy. Maybe repair that one first???!

[GMMatteo]

03:14 PM on 08/17/2011

Jason,

If you use the Android version: Phone Calling, Copy & Paste and Address - Map are all working perfectly. Don't blame Facebook Messenger, blame your restricted OS. These things just work on Android, unlike iOS.

[Jason O Gilbert]

03:47 PM on 08/17/2011

Aha! You're right. But I use my Droid as a work phone, and an iPhone as a personal phone, so I'm stuck not being able to call anyone that sends me their number over Facebook.

Luckily this almost never happens, so...

[GMMatteo]

12:40 PM on 08/18/2011

True. But seeing that the majority of people in the world have an Android, you should update or correct your article to mention that these are iOS issues and not Facebook Messenger's. It's misleading thinking its the App itself when it clearly is the iOS. You should have just mentioned that they should have created the App similar to their Android version which is more full featured and more useful, as are many other things Android related.

[Libercation]

02:06 PM on 08/17/2011

I just heard a 15 year old girl say that facebook is on its way out. Welcome to myspace's neighborhood, Mark.

[Bill Milstead1]

01:56 PM on 08/17/2011

i deleted the app with in 10 min

[Daniel Jones]

12:22 AM on 08/18/2011

within*

[AppleBaby]

01:16 PM on 08/17/2011

sometimes i see like buttons on my app, sometimes they disappear, why?