Facebook undertaking limited testing of ads inside Messenger iPhone app
With the News Feed largely full, Facebook will soon start testing ads in its Messenger app for mobile devices including the iPhone and iPad, the company revealed on Wednesday.
The test will be a limited to a small group of people in Australia and Thailand, Messenger product head Stan Chudnovsky explained to Recode. It will also initially be restricted to five advertisers, which were unmentioned.
Ads will appear further down in Messenger's homescreen, which should ensure that core functions are still easy to access.
Critically, Chudnovsky noted that ads won't be targeted based on message content, which might have raised serious privacy concerns. Instead, companies will only be able direct ads using the same information available for regular Facebook spots.
In fact the test is geared partly towards seeing how people react. A backlash could therefore keep ads out of Messenger, at least temporarily.
Unlike Facebook Stories, currently available in Ireland, the Messenger test is expected to last several months before there's any chance of ads coming to other countries.
"It's not going to be expanding anywhere for a long time," Chudnovsky said.
The test will be a limited to a small group of people in Australia and Thailand, Messenger product head Stan Chudnovsky explained to Recode. It will also initially be restricted to five advertisers, which were unmentioned.
Ads will appear further down in Messenger's homescreen, which should ensure that core functions are still easy to access.
Critically, Chudnovsky noted that ads won't be targeted based on message content, which might have raised serious privacy concerns. Instead, companies will only be able direct ads using the same information available for regular Facebook spots.
In fact the test is geared partly towards seeing how people react. A backlash could therefore keep ads out of Messenger, at least temporarily.
Unlike Facebook Stories, currently available in Ireland, the Messenger test is expected to last several months before there's any chance of ads coming to other countries.
"It's not going to be expanding anywhere for a long time," Chudnovsky said.
Comments
Good that I stopped using both.
Because Apple holds off on releasing that version for Android they have in-house it significancy affects my privacy and complicates my messaging life. Once iMessage comes out for Android, Android users will flock to the app and I can overnight get rid of FaceBook mess from my phone. I kind of hate Facebook anyway so that'd be a great day. WhatsApp is such a heap of shit I had to ban that from my phone two years ago. Kik is nice in how it more easily has throwaway-ability for accounts and their CEO is a great guy, but I know far too few using it. Apple are one of the only tech companies I see respecting people's privacy (Facebook; Google; Samsung: haha) so the sooner all my online communication chats can stay within Apple's network the better. As a Mac user and an iPhone user Apple's holding off on this affects my Apple device experience considerably—what Apple claim to be all about. I hope for my sake Apple are only holding off merely until their Android app is ready. And not for some fear-based strategic reason. So many people in Europe moving to WhatsApp and Facebook mess now. The argument that they can't do it or people will flock to Android is weak at best, and I reckon even more will get their first experience using an Apple product and may like the feel of the water over here, and may also be tempted by a more open Apple knowing they won't be locked into a messaging experience and feel more comfortable trying an iPhone for a year or two for this reason.
Wait, if you had a hard time telling the difference between the ads and real posts doesn't that mean the everything looked like a real post to you (because you couldn't tell it was an Ad)...and thus your facefuck experience was ad-less or I guess the ad's were so non-intrusive that they weren't even there for you. I don't know its late...maybe my logic is wrong.
But I get what you are saying...yes, if I look at something on eBay or shop on Amazon, suddenly as I'm scrolling down I start seeing ads from both those sites in my feed. But somehow it is stuff I want to see. Actually I appreciate those ads because they tell me things I am interested in and sales I might have otherwise missed. What I was talking about was using Facebook on a desktop computer and not a mobile device. There I see ads (for stuff I'm not interested in) towards the right had side. It is out of the way and I hardly even know it is there...I just ignore it...so that is what I was talking about.
Anyway, to each his own I guess.
fyi. right here on Planet Earth!!!
You know Facebook Messenger and iMessage or SMS are totally different applications. They may seem like they do the same thing but they are totally separate. Facebook Messengers is a messaging application for users of Facebook to communicate with other Facebook members. That's it. I have over 300+ friends on facebook and sometimes I need to talk to them in private so to speak. Sometimes I like to share posts or pictures privately with someone...this is what Messenger is used for. I don't have to have these people contact information in my phone and messengers makes it so easy to share contact in this way. I can equally use iMessage but then I have to have their contact info already in my phone and I would have to go through extra steps to share a photo or video which I saw on Facebook. So again, Facebook Messengers is first and foremost a tool to message between Facebook users and to work within the Facebook environment.