Facebook Requires New Messenger Users To Sign Up For An Account, Not Just A Phone Number

Facebook has tightened its grip on Messenger. The social giant said last week that it will require new users to sign up for the Messenger app to tie it to their account on Facebook. This move will effectively force new users to reveal their identities as well as tie their communications to their profile on the platform.

The company made this move because most people using Messenger already log in via their Facebook accounts and it wants to make the process simpler, according to a spokesperson. For now, the existing accounts on Messenger not tied to profiles on Facebook will not need to change anything.

Since 2015, the social giant has allowed people to sign up for Messenger using only a phone number instead of a profile.

This change comes at a time when the company is in preparation to tie Messenger with Instagram and WhatsApp text services. With these changes, Facebook said that communications between these platforms will be end-to-end encryption, which means no one except for the sender and the receiver can view the messages.

Not only is the social giant connecting its platforms together, but it’s also planning to offer its users more privacy when communicating on its services. That includes the ability to shift to private groups as well as person-to-person communications rather than the public style like with its news feed.

Earlier this year, Facebook CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg said he believes privacy holds the future, and it will be the next chapter for the company’s services.