Zuckerberg: Here's Why Facebook Forced You to Download Messenger

What does the general public want to know most about Facebook? What the heck happened with that obnoxious Messenger split?!

Mark Zuckerberg hosted a public Q&A for the first time Thursday, taking questions from Facebook users as well as community members from the areas around the company’s Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters. The first question on the docket, and the most popular question posted online, pertained to Facebook’s decision a few months back to require users to download its standalone messaging app, Messenger, in order to send and receive messages through Facebook on mobile.

So, Mr. Zuckerberg, why did you force us to install Messenger?

Facebook has big plans for messaging, and a product built within the flagship app didn’t give Facebook the flexibility it needs to build out new features, Zuckerberg explained. The top messaging apps on the market focus on messaging alone, he added — not social networking or a News Feed, which the Facebook flagship app features.

"Messaging is one of the few things that people actually do more than social networking," he said. "If we wanted to focus on really serving this [use case] well, we had to build a dedicated and focused experience."

Zuckerberg also fielded a question about "The Social Network," Hollywood’s 2010 rendition of Facebook’s founding story. "I kinda tried to block that one out," he laughed. "It was a very interesting experience to watch a movie that was supposed to be about my life."

While Zuckerberg says the story got some of the minor details right, things like the design of Facebook’s office, he was disappointed with the movie’s accuracy. "They just kind of made up a bunch of stuff that I found kind of hurtful," he said.

Included in the fiction was the notion that Zuckerberg started Facebook to get girls. Zuckerberg says he was dating Priscilla Chan, now his wife, before he ever created Facebook. "If somehow I was trying to create Facebook to find more women, that probably would not have gone over too well in my relationship," he joked.

He did try and have fun with the movie. When "The Social Network" debuted, he took the whole company to see it in theaters.

Facebook's response to Peter Thiel

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

Will you support Vox’s explanatory journalism?

Most news outlets make their money through advertising or subscriptions. But when it comes to what we’re trying to do at Vox, there are a couple reasons that we can't rely only on ads and subscriptions to keep the lights on.

First, advertising dollars go up and down with the economy. We often only know a few months out what our advertising revenue will be, which makes it hard to plan ahead.

Second, we’re not in the subscriptions business. Vox is here to help everyone understand the complex issues shaping the world — not just the people who can afford to pay for a subscription. We believe that’s an important part of building a more equal society. We can’t do that if we have a paywall.

That’s why we also turn to you, our readers, to help us keep Vox free. If you also believe that everyone deserves access to trusted high-quality information, will you make a gift to Vox today?

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via