Popular social networking site Facebook has announced that as part of its commitment to make it easy for people to stay in touch, it released a new mobile app that makes it simple to send messages to others. Facebook Engineer Lucy Zhang explained that it can be a bit of a pain to send someone a message. You could send that someone a text or you could send that someone an email – but how do you know which one they check first or if they got your message? The new mobile app, appropriately named Messenger, aims to do away with such conundrums.

“We think messaging should be easier than that. You should be able to write a message, click "Send" and know that you will reach the person right away,” said Lucy Zhang. “So today, we're introducing Messenger, a new mobile app that simplifies how messaging works, and gives you a faster way to message friends and small groups.’

Messenger is an extension of Facebook messages and a separate app. This means that all your chats, emails, messages and texts are all in the one place; you can view everything, a full history of your messages, on your phone and on your computer. It also means that when you send out a message, they will be delivered via notifications and texts. This way you can rest assured that your friends definitely got your message.

And speaking of friends, the app can be used to get in touch with Facebook friends or with friends in your phone contacts. Just type the name of whomever you want to contact, and send that friend a message. Or if you want to get in touch with several friends, you can easily start a group conversation and send a message to everyone in the group.

You can add two things to your messages: your location and photos.

Messenger is available free of charge for iOS (App Store link here) and Android. For now the app is only available in the US and Canada.