Meta Shuts Down Messenger Desktop App on Windows and macOS
The shutdown caps a long retreat from standalone Messenger, following years of technical downgrades and a strategic shift back toward Facebook’s core platform.
As of yesterday, December 15, 2025, Meta has officially discontinued the Facebook Messenger desktop client for both Windows and macOS, ending a five-year run marked by technical inconsistencies and an inability to compete with enterprise-grade rivals.
Users attempting to launch the app are now met with a redirection screen. The behavior splits by account type: users with a connected Facebook profile are sent to Facebook.com, while those using Messenger without a Facebook account are routed to Messenger.com.
The shutdown is the final step in a decline that began years ago. In 2023, Meta started reintegrating Messenger back into the main Facebook mobile app, signaling a retreat from its standalone messaging strategy.
Ogbonda Chivumnovu
That shift was followed by steady degradation on desktop. The app moved from Electron to React Native, then to a poorly received Catalyst port on macOS and a basic PWA wrapper on Windows, reducing performance and stripping away any native feel.
Beyond platform changes, the desktop app lagged in core functionality. It lacked seamless screen sharing, easy-to-share meeting links, and support for large video calls, leaving it uncompetitive against Zoom and Microsoft Teams.
For remaining users, the immediate concern is data preservation. Because the desktop client stored some end-to-end encryption keys locally, Meta is advising users to enable Secure Storage on the web version. Without setting up this PIN-based backup, encrypted chat histories that lived only on the desktop app could be lost permanently.
Ogbonda Chivumnovu
