Meta Will Kill Messenger App For Apple Watch By End of May

Meta is reportedly shutting down the Messenger app for the Apple Watch by the end of this month. The Facebook parent informed users through a notification on the Apple Watch app. With the app shutting down, users will be able to receive notifications of new messages, but will not be able to reply to them.

Facebook Messenger App Will No Longer be Available on Apple Watch From May 31

Power users of the Messenger App find great use of the Apple Watch's ability to reply to messages without taking their iPhones out of their pocket. The removal of the app will certainly lead to friction in the user experience.

With the app shutting down, users will no longer receive messages when the iPhone is not paired to the Apple Watch, which is possible with the dedicated app.

While Meta has not publicly announced the removal of the app from the Apple Watch, users posted screenshots of notifications they have received about the app shutting down by the end of the month. Clearly, users were not quite happy.

It is currently unclear why Meta is killing the Messenger App for Apple Watch. Thing to note though is that not everyone has received the notification of the app shutting down.

But it's not just Messenger which has been killed for WatchOS. The Telegram app for the Apple Watch has been missing since the launch of WatchOS 9 last year.

Poised For a Comeback?

According to reports, the upcoming WatchOS 10 will be a major update for the Apple Watch, improving the first-party apps by leaps. The release is being dubbed as the biggest ever since the introduction of the Apple Watch.

For one, watchOS is set to bring iPhone-like widgets to the Apple Watch. Apple is expected to open up the APIs for its widgets for developers to build widgets for the watch. Perhaps the apps simply took a break to come back as a renewed product post the release.

Apple is set to host its annual developer conference WWDC next month in June where it is expected to introduce the next iterations of iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, tvOS, and as per reports realityOS that will debut on Apple's upcoming mixed reality headset.