Beluga steps aside for Facebook Messenger
Posted on October 31st, 2011 | Filed under: General
Following its acquisition by Facebook, Beluga has finally announced that it is shutting down services on December 15, 2011. Beluga was designed to be a free group messaging service and it is now making way for the all new Facebook Messenger application.
In March 2011, the startup was acquired by Facebook. At that point of time, the acquisition seems to have raised questions about the future of this group messaging service. The world then saw the release of the Facebook Messenger app based on the same technology, which is currently active in over 22 languages.
In reply to queries from users, the Beluga founders have posted, ‘Now that Facebook Messenger is available everywhere, we’ve decided to stop offering Beluga as a separate service. You can keep using Beluga for now, but we’ll be phasing it out over the next few weeks. We’d like to thank you all for being such enthusiastic and loyal users. We’ll continue to use your feedback to improve Messenger and make messaging your friends easier, faster and more fun.’
The announcement also conveyed how the development would proceed for users towards the final days of this service . For existing loyalists, November 10 would be the last day to send messages using this service. Starting November 11, users will only be able to access old messages on the Beluga app and website. Also, consumers can choose to download an archive of their pods or past conversations keeping in mind its complete shutdown mid of December.
Well, all things considered and the fact that Facebook Messenger borrows so heavily from Beluga, users probably aren’t having a rough time of it anyway.
