Facebook Messenger app on Apple Watch will be discontinued on May 31st

The official Messenger application for Apple Watch is about to stop working and will also be removed from the App Store on May 31, 2023. This is learned through an informative message that appeared directly at the top of the application. Some disappointed users shared the bad news on Twitter. Informative message on the Facebook Messenger app

Of course it will still be possible to receive notifications on Apple Watch in case a friend writes to us through the Messenger platform, but we will no longer have a dedicated app to open to start a new chat with a specific contact nor can we send voice clips, stickers, likes and so on.

Messenger is not the only application that has had its compatibility with Apple Watch removed over time: before it happened for Twitter, Instagram, Trello, Slack, Uber and many others. A Reddit user made a list of all the apps that dropped support for the wearable.

The reason is unknown, it could be a marketing strategy since without an application for Apple Watch users will be forced to use the one on their smartphone, where ads also appear. Another reason, however, could be low usage and general disinterest in smartwatch applications due to limited functionality.

With Instagram and Facebook Messenger removing support for Apple Watch it also becomes more difficult to imagine future support for WhatsApp, despite the company just announcing its arrival on the Wear OS platform, used by fewer users than watchOS.

Even Apple itself has gradually shifted its attention away from watchOS applications to focus more and more on fitness and health-related features. Things could change with the introduction of watchOS 10 which should bring a completely new Home screen, including interactive widgets from installed apps. Only this could give new life to the App Store for WatchOS.