Facebook opens its Chat Service Messenger to a standalone platform

Phoenix Technology News Beijing Time March 26, according to Reuters, Facebook opened its chat Service messenger in Wednesday, allowing developers to create applications that allow consumers to communicate directly with retailers. This is the latest move by Facebook to broaden Messenger's coverage.

Facebook upgraded Messenger to a content platform at the F8 developer conference, allowing its 600 million users to create and share content with third-party tools, communicating directly with the enterprise, rather than calling or emailing. New content tool platforms and applications from initial partners, such as ESPN, will be available through the Messenger update, which was launched in Wednesday. Facebook is working with a handful of partners to develop corporate chat services, which will be launched sometime in the future.

Facebook's new feature first allows developers to create applications that can be run within Messenger applications. Facebook says it will launch 40 different apps on Messenger in the future, allowing users to send sports highlights and animations to each other.

Another new feature is to allow consumers to use Messenger to send short messages to book restaurants or to receive notification that products purchased online are shipped.

Facebook's move to upgrade Messenger to a stand-alone platform comes at a time when the company faces increasingly fierce competition from Twitter, Google, fast-growing Snapchat and micro-letters. (Compiling/Xiao Yu)