Facebook’s New Messages System in the Wild – First Observations
Six months after its initial launch Facebook is now rolling out the new Facebook Messages system to users in Ireland, the UK and other parts of the world. Although Facebook often do not announce new feature rollouts it is clear from searching Twitter or Facebook that many users have recently been switched over to the new system. A search using Google Real Time shows a clear peak in discussion of “new Facebook messages” within the last month, beginning at the end of April and continuing throughout May.
Internally, new Facebook Messages was known as Project Titan but it has also been unofficially titled “the Gmail killer”. Commenting on the new system Mark Zuckerberg has said “This is not an email killer. This is a messaging experience that includes email as one part of it”. However, he has also said that “Facebook’s system fundamentally alters the way people communicate” and in this he is correct. Email is becoming more about identity and for a lot of people, their Facebook network defines their online identity. Back in November, Facebook released some shocking statistics on the use of their previous messaging system, specifically that 350 million Facebook users were using the system and were generating a total of 4 billion messages (including Facebook chat messages) each day. To put this level of adoption and usage into perspective, the three main webmail providers (Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail) have around 800 million users between them. Facebook’s new system therefore changes the way that 350 million people communicate in both their personal and professional lives.
