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Comment by tobtoh | Hacker News Reader

> If you can't provide me with all of the features of messenger in the browser then that's fine.

And I'd also prefer if they don't try and hijack other features.

I had installed Messenger, but had notifications turned off because I don't care to be interrupted every time someone sends me a new message when I'm not actively participating in the chat.

Today, someone tried to call me (as in voice call), via the Messenger app. Because notifications were turned off, I didn't realise they had tried to call even though I had the phone with me at the time because it's treated as a 'data' call via Messenger rather than a real phone call.

Given that I can't separate the functionality of 'text chatting' from 'phone calls' made in Messenger, I've now uninstalled it so friends can't pseudo-call me via Messenger.

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Uh, what did you expect? If you turn off notifications to an application of course you won't be notified, regardless of what communication tactics are used in the app.

That seems to be your fault for assuming otherwise. Unless there was specifically a button in the app for turning off notifications only for texts.

I expected Messenger would just handle chat messages (ie a direct replacement for my web-based FB chat). That it also would re-route voice calls was not expected, but I don't blame it for that.

I do blame it that it doesn't give me the option to disable that functionality. I do not want phone calls to be routed via Messenger ever - yet you have no ability to separate that functionality.

What will happen if that same person tries calling you through Messenger now that you've removed the program?

Your friend chose to contact you via Facebook Messenger, for whatever reason. It didn't "reroute" anything. Phone calls are phone calls. If they'd actually rung you instead of using Facebook Messenger, your phone would still have rung.

It does reroute it.

If you use Messenger to call another Messenger user, it will attempt to make the call as a VOIP call using your data. If you don't have Messenger, it routes it as a normal phone call via your telco 'voice' 3G/4G network. Similar to how iMessage works with SMS on iphones (except with iMessage, I can turn it off on my end)

Okay, but you made it sound like Messenger was intercepting an incoming "normal phone call".

I recently deleted the Facebook app and the world hasn't stopped spining.

Actually I feel quite better

I just quit Facebook and feel the same.

The best thing I did was delete the FB app from my phones and tablets. I access it only from my desktop and a web browser.

Turns out that I don't miss messenger at all. And I get the functionality I want (post a status, read my feed) and none of the battery and privacy sucking "options."

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