Gadgetory

hey everyone welcome to the inside scoop on CNET scars to boy today joined by Ann Scherr senior writer at cnet.com thanks for joining us Ann and today we're talking about facebook Messenger and how Facebook has basically forced its users to migrate over download this app and there's been a lot of backlash people are not pleased yeah a lot of people are not happy about it primarily because there are a couple of things going on right part of it is that they don't a lot of people just don't like having to have another app I've seen a lot of people on Facebook complaining about why do I have to download yet another app from Facebook and then there's a lot of questions around the privacy as well because especially Android users are getting this little pop-up saying it wants access to all sorts of information right and what's going on right right okay so let's let's unbundle that one first of all why is facebook making you download a second app onto your mobile device well this is a trend that's happening throughout the technology industry and the idea is that they can create a better experience by doing this right you have a more kind of defined use for the app when you're going in a messenger you're actively messaging people versus when you're on Facebook and you're kind of searching through the feeds so that's part of the logic behind it and I guess some of the positive news has been that the messenger app is pretty fast once you do actually download it oh yeah I mean it works exactly like Facebook generally right it's pretty it's pretty reliable it works pretty well I've been using it for months and months of months and it works now when it comes to the privacy issues you said it mainly targets are specific to the Android users was it's the privacy the part of it is that the privacy things have come up for Android users so it's part of it is a is a function of how Android works versus the way Apple works so when you download an app on Apple's iOS you will once you try and do something like take a photo and send it to your friends it'll say hey is it okay if this app accesses the camera and you say yes or no right with Android they ask for all this upfront so something you have this whole list of things that it wants access to your address book here are your camera and all your microphone yeah right all of these things oh my god right and so the idea is it wants the same stuff that the Apple one was right if you want to take a photo instead of your friends it has to has access to the to the camera if you want to invite your friends to you messenger it has to have access to your contacts database it's just the way it works and then for those people who just are very resistant to are downloading this new app or using it what can they do to get around it you know you don't have any options you know there's always the option leave Facebook that's that is always the last option that you have but in the meantime if you're if you still want to use Facebook you you would go to the web if you don't want to use these two apps or you stop using messenger right altogether and you just email or text friends the old-fashioned way yeah fashioned by today's standards thank you so much senior writer Ian sure I'm cars do boy thanks for watching this inside