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Thursday, July 3, 2014

At Long Last, Facebook Messenger Arrives on iPads


Facebook's dedicated chat app, Facebook Messenger, is finally available for theiPad.

The popular chatting app was previously only available on mobile for the iPhone, but the social network pushed out an update on Thursday that includes full native iPad support. In the past, users could use Facebook Messenger on the iPad, but only as an enlarged iPhone app.

Messenger allows users to contact their Facebook friends for free via the tool, forgoing text messaging. Updates to the app include bug fixes and the ability to save videos within the app directly to your phone's camera roll.

Facebook Messenger is now available on iPad for the first time.

The news comes three years after Facebook acquired group messaging app Beluga and later built that technology into Messenger, which became its first mobile app launched beyond its official Facebook app.

Messenger's fate became unclear after Facebook purchased messaging service WhatsApp earlier this year for $16 billion. In April, Facebook confirmed it would force its mobile users to send messages only via the Messenger app, eliminating chat features from the iOS and Android versions of the Facebook app. This indicated that Messenger wouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon.

You download the iPad app from the Apple App Store here.


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