By using the Facebook app on your mobile you can see what your friends are up to, you can post updates, you can share photos and videos, you can play games, and you can text and chat with your friends.

The last part, the part about being able to text and chat with your friends, it’s on its way out. You see, messages are being taken out of the Facebook app and they’re transferred to the Messenger app.

Why is Facebook taking messages out of the Facebook app and moving them to the Messenger app? The official answer is that Messenger is much faster and more reliable.

Here’s the email I recently received from Facebook:

“Hi George,

We wanted to let you know that messages are moving out of the Facebook app to our Messenger app, a free app that's faster and more reliable for everyday messaging. Messenger also includes: new ways to send photos and videos, voice calls, stickers, group conversations and more.

Soon, we'll start guiding you to get started with Messenger. After a few days, you'll also see a reminder notice in the Facebook app, where you'd normally see your messages. At that point, we'll ask you to install Messenger or go to the Facebook website to view and send messages. You'll still see new message notifications in the Facebook app, and it'll be easy to switch between Facebook and Messenger.

We appreciate your taking the time to install Messenger and know it will take a little while to adjust to using a second app. We look forward to sharing this fast, fun and reliable way of messaging with you. You can learn more here.

Thanks,
The Messenger Team”

This reminds me of Foursquare, who moved all check-ins from the Foursquare app to its new Swarm app.

In related news, Facebook Messenger for Windows Phone has been updated. The updated version introduces video recording and video playback; it lets you send video messages and watch received videos directly within the app.