Messenger For Mac

There's been talk of an official Messenger desktop app for a while now, and it seems Facebook has finally released it to the world. Given how the Coronavirus pandemic has changed the way we all communicate and work, this is welcome news.

Built using Electron, the app offers almost the same features you can find in the web and mobile versions of Messenger, including voice and video chat.

The official desktop app was first announced over a year ago, with an early release making its way to the Mac App Store in early March. That version was only available for a limited number of users though, and only in certain regions.

Now, Messenger is available for everyone, everywhere. Chatting with our friends is more important than ever now that we're all stuck in our homes, so Facebook's timing is spot on. However, it's worth noting that the desktop app still doesn't support screen sharing, which means you'll have to look elsewhere if that's what you need.

Aside from screen sharing, pretty much everything else. You can chat, make voice calls, video calls, and even video conferences. Really, if you've used the web or mobile version of Messenger before, nothing will surprise you.

The UI design is clean, with full support for dark/light mode, and an additional gray theme thrown in. Just like with the web app, the interface layout changes as you resize the main window.

Of course, you will get desktop notifications when receiving new messages, and you have full control over them from your macOS preferences. A Dock icon badge also lets you know when there is something new in one of your chats.

Frankly, unless you need the web app's screen sharing feature, which only works on Chrome and requires an additional extension, Messenger for desktop seems to be the way to go. Managing your chats is much easier from a native desktop application, and you have much better control over how notifications are handled. Even if it's just to get rid of a browser tab, this app is worth trying out.