Danny Chadwick
Facebook Messenger is leaving Apple Watch on May 31st, according to several social media posts. While the app will disappear, users will still get notifications to their smartwatch when they receive messages through Messenger, states the screen-captured notification from Facebook posted to Twitter.
Update, 5/10/23 12:05 pm Eastern: This story has been updated to include comment from Facebook.
NOT HAPPY @Apple @messenger #applewatch #wtf pic.twitter.com/B81aK6EUf3
— Amanda Nova (@M_anda_M) May 9, 2023
However, the message didn’t appear to go out to many people. Chatter about the impending end of Messenger on Apple Watch is limited to just a handful of Tweets, with just a couple of users providing visual receipts of the notifications they received on their devices informing them of the social media giant’s decision to withdraw from the smartwatch.
“People can still receive Messenger notifications on their Apple Watch when paired, but starting at the end of May they will no longer be able to respond from their watch. But they can continue using Messenger on their iPhone, desktop and the web.”
(The spokesperson later clarified that this change will take place “at the beginning of June,” rather than the “end of May.”)
Other posters bemoaned the Apple Watch leaving the smartwatch but did not provide screenshots. For what it’s worth, the Review Geek staff have not encountered this notification on their Apple Watches. We reached out to Facebook for comment, a spokesperson for the company replied with the following statement: “People can still receive Messenger notifications on their Apple Watch when paired, but starting at the end of May they will no longer be able to respond from their watch. But they can continue using Messenger on their iPhone, desktop and the web.”
As of this writing, Facebook has not released any information to the general public about its decision to remove Messenger from the Apple Watch. So, it remains unclear why it would do this. However, some posters on Facebook speculate it could be because allowing users to respond to Messages via the smartwatch app reduced the number of minutes spent in the mobile app and website, PiunikaWeb reports.
via PiunikaWeb
