Meta is shutting down the standalone Messenger site

Meta is shutting down its standalone Messenger site, the company shared on its help page. As of April 2026, the website will no longer be available. If users still want to send and receive messages on the web, they can do so while logged into Facebook.

“After messenger.com disappears, you will automatically be redirected to use facebook.com/messages to message on your computer,” the help page says. “You can continue your conversations there or on the Messenger mobile app.”

If you’re using Messenger without a Facebook account, you’ll only be able to continue your conversations on the Messenger mobile app. Users can restore their chat history on any platform using the PIN they entered when they first created a backup on Messenger. If you can’t remember your PIN, you can reset it.

The move comes just months after Meta shut down standalone Messenger desktop apps for Windows and Mac. The writing may have been on the wall at the time, as Meta was redirecting existing desktop app users to Facebook’s website to continue using the messaging service, rather than the Messenger website.

The change was first spotted by reverse engineer Alessandro Paluzzi. Meta notifies users of the update via a pop-up message on the Messenger website and app.

Users took to social media to express their frustration with the update, with many saying they did not want to rely on Facebook to send and receive Messenger conversations on the web, especially those who had deactivated their Facebook accounts.

While Meta’s decision to shut down several Messenger platforms is frustrating for users, it allows the tech giant to reduce costs by leaving fewer platforms for maintenance.

Messenger first launched as “Facebook Chat” in 2008, and Facebook (now Meta) launched Facebook Messenger as a standalone app in 2011. Over the years, the tech giant has positioned Messenger as its own service outside of Facebook, and in 2014, the social network removed messaging capabilities from its main mobile app to push people to the Messenger app. However, the company backed away from this in 2023 when it started integrating Messenger back into the Facebook app.

Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.