Since the social network split its applications into smaller, specific offerings, some interesting trends have developed.
When it comes to the Facebook mobile app, there are actually quite a few from which to choose, and what is interesting about the download stats is that it is the Messenger application that is proving to be the most popular, even over the main flagship offering from the company.
The two social apps have been available since 2012 and the Messenger offering is notably more popular.
In fact, from 2012 through the first six months of 2015, the Messenger mobile app from Facebook has managed to bring in over 646.6 million downloads throughout that time. This, according to the app analytics from the Sensor Tower firm. Throughout that same span of time, the flagship Facebook social media app was able to achieve an impressive but notably lower 568 million downloads.
Aside from those two Facebook mobile apps, none of the brand’s other applications even come close.
Facebook has a range of different applications available for various purposes, but aside from those top two options, none of the other options are nearly as popular. To put it in perspective, all of the other Facebook apps, combined (aside from the flagship and Messenger options) have accumulated a total of 637.5 million downloads, total. That is about 9 million downloads fewer than Messenger’s total, all on its own.
What should be noted is that a number of the Facebook applications are from the company’s Creative Labs division. The purpose of that team is not necessarily the generation of the largest number of downloads. Instead, it is to use its app offerings to better understand the overall Facebook usage experience so that the primary apps can be enhanced to fit the wants and expectations of the users.
For example, the company learned a great deal its mobile apps such as Paper, so that it would be able to better design its instant articles feature, which makes it possible for news organizations to make social network posts of their articles directly onto Facebook. In the case of Messenger, though, the application has managed to hold the first position at both the Google Play and App Store ranks for quite some time.
The social network will be facing a number of changes in its user experience over smartphones and tablets.
Facebook has decided that one or two mobile apps isn’t taking up enough real estate on smartphones and tablets and has now announced that in 2015, it will be dividing many of its features into a number of different separate applications, instead of a more all-in-one opportunity that it previously provided.
The social network has stated that it is going forward with this decision and it will be starting quite soon.
In 2015, it plans to start to move a growing number of its features away from its main application and into separate mobile apps of their own. According to the Facebook Canada managing director, Jordan Banks, who is also the global head of vertical strategy for the company, “We’re getting away from that single app that does everything for you. We released nine different apps in 2014 and I think what you’ll see is we’ll release more in 2015 — at the demand and behest of our users.”
Facebook feels that its users wants separate mobile apps that will each do one thing very effectively.
Banks explained that they feel that most of the users of mobile social media would like features in individual apps “that do one thing incredibly well.” Therefore, they have taken Messenger out of the main Facebook app, for example, and have placed it into its own standalone app. They claim that the reason they have done it is that “that’s what our users were telling us. They didn’t want to click two or three times before they got into Messenger.”
For this reason, Banks expressed that it is likely that this will be a considerable trend for the company as it moves forward. Facebook will start to be focused on issuing more individual apps with the new features from the company, instead of continuing to build on one central application.
Although at the time of the writing of this article, Banks stated that he had heard only positive feedback about the decision, users have been complaining quite loudly about the separate mobile apps for different features, particularly in terms of the Facebook Messenger option. At the Apple App Store, there are currently a larger number of one-star reviews for the decision than there is applause.
