Facebook befriended controversy long time ago. Due to disputes surrounding its birth, the company had to pay $21.25 million in cash and shares as compensation. The Cambirdge Analytica scandal was a humongous setback for the multinational company.

Leaving controversies aside, Messenger is another popular application from Facebook with more than a billion installs on Google Play. As you might already know, it lets you send and receive messages to people using Facebook services.

messenger play store
Messenger on Google Play

When the service first went live, it used to function as a complementary one. Meaning, you couldn’t use Messenger without having an account on Facebook. However, they removed this imperativeness about four and half years ago.

So, people started using Messenger as a standalone application using the “Not on Facebook?” option with their phone number as the login id. It was actually a blessing for millions who didn’t want to swim into the depths of primary Facebook application.

Guess what? They have silently removed this feature and now you need a Facebook account to use Messenger. It came to our notice after laying our eyes on a couple of Reddit posts. Have a look at them below.

Facebook Messenger phone number reddit
Source

Facebook has silently removed the ability to use Messenger with a phone number
Here it is, confirmation straight from their Help Center:
Can I sign up for Messenger if I don’t have a Facebook account?
No. You’ll need to create a Facebook account to use Messenger.
It was nice while it lasted, but now I can’t login to my Facebook-less Messenger account since it keeps telling me my account is restricted. So I’m dead in the water, basically.
(Source)

Facebook messenger without phone
Source

So yeah, you can see the official confirmation on the Help Center. Interestingly, the sign up screen on the Lite app says using it wont end up creating an account and redirects you to a Join Facebook page.

messenger lite without phone number
Look at the bottom of the image

Nonetheless, it seems like you can keep on using Messenger even after deactivating your Facebook account. Then again, going through that route doesn’t resemble the way you use the application via your phone number.

Note:- Check out our Facebook section for similar stories.

PiunikaWeb started as purely an investigative tech journalism website with main focus on ‘breaking’ or ‘exclusive’ news. In no time, our stories got picked up by the likes of Forbes, Foxnews, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Engadget, The Verge, Macrumors, and many others. Want to know more about us? Head here.

Rahul Krishnan
282 Posts

Rahul Krishnan, a wordsmith from Kerala, India is always in lookout for his next article idea. He is a fanatic reader. And, the rumour is that his mom has recently hidden his debit card so that he won't buy books anymore. She doesn't know he has a spare one.

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