Facebook has revealed that, for its Messenger app, it is currently testing an “Add Contact” feature that would enable Messenger users to expand their network without Facebook friending people.
While it is already possible for people who aren’t friends on Facebook to, through message requests, use Messenger to send each other messages, the “Add Contact” testing, which Facebook confirmed to BuzzFeed News, has broader implications.
It means that, should Facebook make “Add Contact” a permanent feature of Messenger, a whole new social network could form on Messenger independent of Facebook’s main network.
While Facebook’s decision to transfer its Messenger service from the main app to strictly a separate one rankled in some quarters when originally announced in 2014, the service has since flourished in both functionality and popularity, having recently notched up over a billion monthly users.