Back in 2011, Facebook released a desktop Facebook Messenger client, but its existence was shortlived. After a couple of years the useful app became obsolete, and although a number of third-party apps persisted, most weren't very well executed. Furthermore, you can't always be sure that the third-party messenger app doesn't compromise the security of your personal conversations.
I discovered something today that I knew I had to share. Chromium (and Chrome) have an extensive list of command line flags (known as "switches") that can be used to customize your browser beyond the features available through the UI. One in particular, --app, will start a new instance of Chrome in application mode. This mode essentially runs Chrome without an address bar, borders, tabs, etc. Using this feature, we can run a simple desktop application based on a web app. Continue reading and I'll show you what I mean.
Below are the steps to setting up Facebook Messenger as a desktop application. Depending on your operating system and configuration, these steps may be different. This tutorial assumes you have the Google Chrome browser installed.
Installation for windows is simple. Like, extremely simple. In Google Chrome, open the settings menu (by pressing the icon with three dots), then click More Tools and then select Add to Desktop.... This will create a shortcut on your desktop.
You can also create this shortcut manually. First, you want to locate the Chrome executable. On my machine, this is found in C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application, but your mileage may vary.
Next, right click on chrome.exe and click Create Shortcut. It will likely prompt you to create the shortcut on the desktop.
Right click the new shortcut and select Properties. Under the General tab, name the shortcut. I named mine Messenger App. Next, under the Shortcut tab, append --app=http://messenger.com to the target. It will look something like this: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --app=http://messenger.com
In OSX, this process is a bit more involved. The goal is to create an application that will run the following command:
/Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google\ Chrome --app="http://messenger.com"
To do this, open the Script Editor application and paste the following AppleScript:
do shell script "/Applications/Google\\ Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google\\ Chrome --app=http://messenger.com"
Now, save the file as an application. Name it Messenger.app. Now, the application will appear in the launch pad.
You can optionally change the shortcut icon to the Facebook Messenger. I've included an icon you can use.
Voila! Now you have a simple Facebook Messenger client app for desktop!