With that, we’ll call the new Facebook chat a push when it comes to success/failure. On the other hand, reaction to the newly-released Facebook Messenger app (for both the Apple and Google OS), at least on Twitter, has been largely positive.

Apparently, the lesson is this: Facebook chat sidebar on widescreen monitors, bad. Facebook chat on hand-held devices with smaller viewing areas when compared to widescreen monitors, good.

Sounds reasonable. Of course, the Facebook Messenger app was made simply for that reason, to message your Facebook clan. The chat sidebar on the non-mobile Facebook interfered with the overall experience, or something like that, anyway — as you can probably tell, this writer was not nearly as bothered by FB’s update chat functionality as others were. Nevertheless, the messenger app is winning where the chat functionality failed:

Regardless of the positivity the Facebook Messenger app is generating, people still haven’t forgiven Facebook chat for, well, existing:

It should also be noted, not all the reception for the app has been golden:

Thinking outside the box here, but the app could’ve come in handy over in England for organization purposes and for the subsequent arrests because people are dumb enough to arrange stuff like riots on Facebook:

Nevertheless, the following says plenty about the already-popular Facebook Messenger app:

Let’s not forget about poor Blackberry as, once again, RIM was left behind in the mobile device application department:

All that being said, perhaps the most honest reactions comes from The Empire:

That’s quickly becoming a novel idea, it seems.

So, does Facebook Messenger make up for the now-hideable failure that the updated Facebook chat was? Will it, like some suggest, take the place of SMS as the message medium of choice for a new generation? Doubtful, especially if a Facebook mass exodus ever happens. Google+ is still waiting patiently in the high grass, waiting to pounce.

We’ll admit: this may not sound like a big deal insofar as it’s pretty simple to toggle between a Hotmail tab and a Facebook tab.  But the development at least goes to show that relations between Microsoft and Facebook are as good as ever.

Also, a slight increase in usability is something, and the change could come in handy when access to Facebook is restricted (by employers, for example).

Finally, a post on the Inside Windows Live blog pointed out, "Since announcing the availability of Facebook chat in Messenger worldwide two weeks ago, nearly 2.5 more million people connected their Facebook accounts to Windows Live, bringing the total to over 20 million customers.  And with three out of four Hotmail customers using Facebook, we expect that many more people will want to take advantage of this feature . . ."

So if you’re interested, the post later suggested, "[F]irst connect your Facebook account to Windows Live and make sure the ‘Chat with my Facebook friends in Messenger’ box is checked to give your consent to Facebook.  We’ll link your accounts (this may take a few minutes), and you can start a chat from Hotmail just by clicking on the name of a Facebook contact.  If this doesn’t work right away, sign out and back in again, and you should be good to go."

Without getting into any technical details, Rodrigo Schmidt, a software engineer, wrote on the Facebook Blog, "[I]n the past couple of weeks, we’ve already made Chat faster and more stable, fixed bugs and improved the technology on which it runs."

Schmidt also wrote, "[W]e will be making important improvements in the way connections are established and messages are sent, so that Chat will be much more stable for you and your friends."

Most Facebook users should welcome these changes.  The problems with Facebook Chat have always been annoying, and have often been embarrassing in a they-should-have-fixed-this-by-now sense.

The few people who might not appreciate the upgrades are Internet Explorer 6 fans (if there is such a species).  IE6 support will be discontinued on September 15th because the browser won’t be able to handle the changes.

That shouldn’t represent any sort of major problem, though, and may in fact turn out to be a detail tech-savvy individuals applaud.

 Facebook Chat

A small sort of box at the bottom right corner of the screen shows whether you’re "offline" or "online."  Go online, and it’ll add information about which friends are available.  Otherwise, options are extremely limited, but as far as holding basic conversations goes, Facebook Chat works fine.

Furthermore, Facebook Chat appears to be popular.  Wall mentions of "facebook chat" are occurring at about six times the highest level "beacon" ever reached, according to Facebook Lexicon. 

It remains to be seen what sort of actual following Facebook Chat will gather, of course; since it has only a fraction of the things traditional favorites like AIM offer, and not everyone stays on Facebook all day, a tidal shift might not occur.  But when you sign into the social network, Facebook Chat is "right there," so it’s likely to get a lot of use.

Also, going forward, Stan Schroeder notes, "The Facebook folks are aware that features are scarce, and they promise more in the future."