They seem to go about these things in the wrong way. Take Messenger for example, there was no good reason to remove access to this via a browser on mobile devices. I don't want to have to install an app for something that was previously available in a browser. If you can't provide me with <i>all</i> of the features of messenger in the browser then that's fine. I thought we were meant to be progressing towards a truly open web accessible to all, regardless of device.<p>This is just another example of Facebook doing whatever they please just because they can. I wonder how long that will last until people start moving away from the platform.
I'm pretty happy with my decision to keep Facebook apps off my phone. I'll check the mobile site once in a while to see the news feed, but that's it.<p>Of course I have google backing everything up, so maybe that's not much better. Time to write a little script to routinely backup photos from there to my own hard drive.
I installed Messenger but didn't use it much. When Facebook shut off access to chat via the web app a few days ago I removed Messenger.<p>There's no way I'm going to install this app. I never installed the Facebook app because of repeated articles about what a battery killer it was.<p>I installed Google Photos on my iPhone because it provided me with some features I couldn't get otherwise.
I read the article before I reacted but this is a bad move for a lot of reasons:<p>* user hostility & just doing this with messenger app.<p>* messenger app exists as does instagram and whatsapp. You want your own ecosystem, build a phone or an OS<p>* overplaying their hand. facebook is successful because it is a defacto standard. However, fragmenting new users by expecting them to have 4 apps (whatsapp, instagram, messenger & moments) as well as a website is a lot to ask. especially on a phone thats core function is messeging and photography, they are either launching an OS or they are insane.<p>Now, I use facebook occasionally out of convenience but I am not a huge fan of it. I recognize I am a fringe & atypical user concerned with privacy & tech consolidation, but threatening teenagers wasn't a great strategy when I was one not that long ago, so the alternative to "if you live under my house, you fol my rules", is to crash with your mates apple, microsoft, google, twitter, snapchat and whatever else exists
Okay, so, the obvious question seems to be: if I am an affected user (I'm not, I don't do that Facebook thing personally), then wouldn't uninstalling the app prevent the deletion of photos?<p>The article is thin on details, does this mean it deletes photos out of your Google Photos and Apple Camera Roll apps? It seems to be written a bit FUDdy, but it <i>is</i> Facebook afterall, they're known to violate the social contract they have with users frequently.