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Facebook Messenger for Windows will shut down on March 3

Feb26
by on February 26, 2014 at 10:58 pm
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web, Insider, Social Media

144147602 1 520x245 Facebook Messenger for Windows will shut down on March 3

Facebook today began prompting Facebook Messenger for Windows users with a message saying the app is shutting down next week. Without much of an explanation, the company plans to kill off Windows support for Facebook Messenger on March 3.

“We’re sorry, but we can no longer support Facebook Messenger for Windows, and it will stop working on March 3, 2014,” the message states at the top of the application. “We really appreciate you using Messenger to reach your friends, and we want to make sure you know that you can keep chatting and view all your messages on http://www.facebook.com. Learn more.”

facebook messenger shutdown Facebook Messenger for Windows will shut down on March 3

The “Learn more” link unfortunately takes the user to a generic Messages page on Facebook’s Help Center. The only section relevant to Facebook Messenger for Windows is for uninstalling it.

The Facebook Messenger for Windows installer is nowhere to be found on the official site. The page specifically says the app is available for Android and iOS, but not Windows:

facebook messenger android ios Facebook Messenger for Windows will shut down on March 3

The news comes less than three days after Microsoft announced Facebook Messenger for Windows Phone would arrive in just a few weeks. “We’ve been working with Facebook testing out their implementation for a while,” Joe Belfiore, Microsoft’s corporate vice president and manager of Windows Phone, was quoted by Techcrunch as saying during a press conference at Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona. “It’s looking good and we will have it for our customers soon.”

It seems Microsoft can only keep Facebook in one of its platforms at a time. The company is of course attempting to merge the Windows and Windows Phone stores, but that’s still a long way off.

Facebook Messenger for Windows was released in March 2012, following a limited beta test in November 2011. An OS X version has been long expected, but that seems even less likely now.

We have contacted Facebook for more information about this decision. We will update this post if we hear back.

Update: “I can confirm that we are notifying people who use Facebook Messenger for Windows that it will no longer be available as of March 3,” a Facebook spokesperson told TNW. The chat client was available for just under two years.

Top Image Credit: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/GettyImages

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Facebook Messenger for Windows will shut down on March 3

Feb26
by on February 26, 2014 at 10:58 pm
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web, Insider, Social Media

144147602 1 520x245 Facebook Messenger for Windows will shut down on March 3

Facebook today began prompting Facebook Messenger for Windows users with a message saying the app is shutting down next week. Without much of an explanation, the company plans to kill off Windows support for Facebook Messenger on March 3.

“We’re sorry, but we can no longer support Facebook Messenger for Windows, and it will stop working on March 3, 2014,” the message states at the top of the application. “We really appreciate you using Messenger to reach your friends, and we want to make sure you know that you can keep chatting and view all your messages on http://www.facebook.com. Learn more.”

facebook messenger shutdown Facebook Messenger for Windows will shut down on March 3

The “Learn more” link unfortunately takes the user to a generic Messages page on Facebook’s Help Center. The only section relevant to Facebook Messenger for Windows is for uninstalling it.

The Facebook Messenger for Windows installer is nowhere to be found on the official site. The page specifically says the app is available for Android and iOS, but not Windows:

facebook messenger android ios Facebook Messenger for Windows will shut down on March 3

The news comes less than three days after Microsoft announced Facebook Messenger for Windows Phone would arrive in just a few weeks. “We’ve been working with Facebook testing out their implementation for a while,” Joe Belfiore, Microsoft’s corporate vice president and manager of Windows Phone, was quoted by Techcrunch as saying during a press conference at Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona. “It’s looking good and we will have it for our customers soon.”

It seems Microsoft can only keep Facebook in one of its platforms at a time. The company is of course attempting to merge the Windows and Windows Phone stores, but that’s still a long way off.

Facebook Messenger for Windows was released in March 2012, following a limited beta test in November 2011. An OS X version has been long expected, but that seems even less likely now.

We have contacted Facebook for more information about this decision. We will update this post if we hear back.

Update: “I can confirm that we are notifying people who use Facebook Messenger for Windows that it will no longer be available as of March 3,” a Facebook spokesperson told TNW. The chat client was available for just under two years.

Top Image Credit: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/GettyImages

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Github releases Atom, a text-editor for coders

Feb26
by on February 26, 2014 at 10:15 pm
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web

atom 520x245 Github releases Atom, a text editor for coders

Github today took the wraps off a new text editor named Atom. The company has been working on Atom for over six years and has made the new editor available as part of an invite-only beta program.

In a post announcing the new editor today, Github said that Atom began as an experiment and quickly became a tool that it couldn’t live without. Atom is completely open source and the company is encouraging developers to extend it as much as they want, calling it “a hackable text editor for the 21st Century”

BhZafL0CAAAJ1Hr Github releases Atom, a text editor for coders

One of the main reasons for building Atom was that the company wanted an editor that “will be welcoming to an elementary school student on their first day learning to code, but also a tool they won’t outgrow as they develop into seasoned hackers.”

Atom is in closed beta for Mac users right now (with Windows and Linux builds coming soon), but invites will be given out to those who sign up on the website over the next few weeks as the beta is expanded.

➤ Atom

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Facebook will restructure its advertising platform into campaigns, ad sets, and ads on March 4

Feb26
by on February 26, 2014 at 10:07 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Social Media

79493977 1 520x245 Facebook will restructure its advertising platform into campaigns, ad sets, and ads on March 4

Facebook today announced it will launch a new campaign structure on March 4 with the goal of making it easier for advertisers of every size to organize, optimize, and measure their ads. The company will go from two levels (campaigns and ads) to three (campaigns, ad sets, and ads).

Facebook plans to push the new structure worldwide across all ad interfaces, including the Ads Create Tool, Ads Manager and Power Editor, as well as third-party ad interfaces built by Preferred Marketing Developers. When it arrives on your ad account, all your campaigns will be migrated automatically to the new structure, but the migration will not impact delivery, spend, or performance of your existing ads (historical data for existing ads and campaigns will also remain available).

Here is a breakdown of the new trio:

  • Campaigns correspond to each of your advertising objectives, like building brand awareness or driving web traffic. They’re designed to help you optimize and measure your results for each objective across multiple ad sets and ads.
  • Ad sets with their own budget and schedule are found in each campaign. You can also organize each ad set to represent audience segments, like people who live near your store, to control the amount you spend on each audience, decide when they will see your ads, and measure their response. The ad delivery system will optimize delivery for the best-performing ad in an ad set.
  • Ads feature different images, links, video, or text and are found in ad sets. You can still control the creative, targeting and bidding at the ad level.

851584 1408055446119534 142483355 n Facebook will restructure its advertising platform into campaigns, ad sets, and ads on March 4

Overall, this change seems like it will result in more work for marketers. The upside is, however, they will learn which ads are resonating with each audience and, in turn, be able to create better-optimized campaigns. At least, that’s what Facebook is hoping.

Top Image Credit: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

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Connected car device Automatic gets IFTTT support

Feb26
by on February 26, 2014 at 10:00 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider

automatic 520x245 Connected car device Automatic gets IFTTT support

Automatic, a smart hardware plugin for your car, has announced integration with Internet automation service IFTTT.

IFTTT works by allowing users to create “recipes” that combine a trigger with an action. Automatic’s triggers include turning the ignition on or off, location, the check engine light and completion of a trip. While the service is bound to have some overlap with IFTTT’s new Location channel, it does add lots of potential for some neat interactions.

Sample recipes include emailing your mechanic when your check engine light comes on, automatically logging work trip mileage in a Google spreadsheet and notifying friends when you leave or arrive.

Connected car device Automatic gets IFTTT support
The $100 Automatic device plugs into the port on your car that mechanics use to monitor the vehicle’s status and perform smog checks. It then syncs with your phone in order to show you the data and offer suggestions on how to improve your driving efficiency.

“Originally, we started out with this idea that connectivity would change the way we use our cars,” Automatic Chief Product Officer Ljuba Miljkovic said in an interview. “Our cars are the most powerful computers that we have and yet they’re not connected to the internet.”

The IFTTT integration fits with Automatic’s goal to open up the driving experience to other connected services and products that we use.

“Your car is just another piece of technology that you can hook up with anything else that you do online,” Miljkovic added.

With IFTTT, you can also create a link between your car actions and connected home products. For instance, you could have lights turn on when you get home, or have the light in your garage change colors depending on the health of your car.

For now, Automatic’s IFTTT channel only provides triggers, so you won’t be able to start your car every time someone tweets at you, but maybe someday you can have your car come pick you as soon as you lock your door.

Image credit: Automatic

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