Is Facebook making a stand-alone Messenger app for Mac in the style of the existing iOS app? A new photo and eyewitness account posted by TechCrunch certainly suggest so.
TechCrunch has obtained a photo of what it claims is a Facebook employee using a Messenger app for Mac. Furthermore, the unspecified source that took and provided the photo has reported strong evidence that this is an official, rather than third party, Messenger app.
The source has claimed, for example, that the Messenger logo formed the icon for this app in the Mac app Dock, while the menu bar referred to the app as Messenger. The photo also shows a tab bar, with such options as Recent, Groups, People and Settings, that is absent in unofficial Messenger apps.
Facebook declined to comment on the story. If the company is indeed intending this Mac app for public release, it would be very surprising if it does not also bring back a similar Windows app, following its shutdown of the desktop Facebook Messenger for Windows app back in March 2014.