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You can now sign up and use Messenger without a Facebook account

After breaking off Messenger into a standalone app, Facebook is giving the texting app a new level of autonomy.

Today, the company announced that it no longer requires Messenger users to have a Facebook account. Instead, new users will now be able to sign up with a name, phone number, and photo.

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Facebook has increasingly been diversifying its portfolio of social apps through acquisitions of platforms like Instagram and Whatsapp, and through new product development, like its most recent app Moments, in order to reach the millions of people who are connecting off of Facebook.

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By opening up Messenger, Facebook can now reach people who aren’t on its main platform and perhaps draw new people on.

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