Products · Product
Facebook Messenger
Raised as a usability problem by 220 people on Hacker News over 19 years (2008–2026), in 188 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9Typed letters appear with noticeable lagUnreviewed
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
Every issue, all time, most people first
Messaging removed from mobile web, forcing separate app installUnreviewed
20082026- Mobile site redirects to a prompt to install the app, hiding messages2026-01-30
- Web version on mobile forces users to install the app instead2023-12-07
- Messenger on a phone browser is blocked, forcing an app install2023-07-14
Desktop site unusable on phone; mobile browser blocked from messenger.comUnreviewed
20082026- Using Facebook in a browser is painful after Messenger Lite and mobile browser mode were removed2025-06-10
- Messenger needs desktop-site request, login each time, and zooming out to be usable2024-05-16
- Messages only reachable via desktop view and www URL workaround2021-04-09
Notification prompt reappears every time the app opensUnreviewed
20082026- Can't stop the app waking the phone screen on every notification2024-04-12
- Messenger notifications stop appearing when the Facebook app is open, with no unread indicator2021-08-03
- Hard to silence unwanted notifications without disabling the whole app2019-05-25
Notifications arrive minutes late; unread count stuck on phantom messagesUnreviewed
20082026- Notifications arrive minutes late and unread count gets stuck showing messages that aren't there2025-03-03
- Painfully slow on desktop; message notifications take many seconds to load2021-10-07
- Badge shows unread messages that aren't there; clicking shows nothing2019-08-07
Notifications cannot be turned off permanently; only mute for 24 hoursUnreviewed
20082026- Can't turn off Facebook notifications on the web messages page, forcing a choice between notifications and messages2026-02-17
- No option to fully disable notifications, only a temporary 24-hour mute2019-08-09
- Can't find a way to turn off the notifications2019-08-07
Messages arrive minutes late and out of order on slow connectionsUnreviewed
20082026- Can't display recent chats in the correct order, and the site is confusingly slow2025-12-10
- Opening Messenger and chat groups takes seconds of waiting2024-12-01
- Messaging forced into a separate app, adding delay each time to open it2015-04-06
Chat fails to reconnect, drops updates silently, hides load controlUnreviewed
20082026- Blocks access to chats until user upgrades, then the interface is changed and shuffled2020-08-27
- Friends get a cryptic 'not accepting messages' error after deactivating, breaking one-on-one chats2018-10-29
- Keeps showing a new-message alert even after all chats are deleted2018-02-28
Typed letters appear with noticeable lagUnreviewed
20082026- Typing lags up to two seconds per letter, making the text box unusable2024-11-10
- Typing becomes very laggy, worse in chats with many rich links2017-09-09
- Typed letters appear with a noticeable lag, making messaging almost unusable2016-10-07
Messenger cannot be turned off; messages keep arrivingUnreviewed
20082026- Messenger cannot be turned off, so the user kept getting messages there2021-05-27
- Can't stop Messenger texts after uninstalling; can't find a way to fully disable them2017-02-11
- Forced into Messenger app in a nasty way, so user stopped using Facebook messaging2016-06-04
Flooded with notices, so messages from friends get missedUnreviewed
20082026- Turned-off notifications still send unwanted Facebook stories, so real messages get buried2026-02-20
- Flooded with notices, so real messages from friends get missed2019-08-08
- Notifications send fake friend alerts that only say the contact has Messenger2019-08-07
Cannot search message history; scrolling old messages is very slowUnreviewed
20082026- Voice messages are hard to search back through and slow to consume compared to reading2021-11-12
- Search barely works, and scrolling up through conversations is very slow2021-10-01
- Scrolling back through old messages is atrociously slow2021-01-04
Mobile web group messages require repeated loginsUnreviewed
20082026- Mobile web version of group messages requires repeated logins to keep up with active conversations2017-08-19
- Chat on mobile web repeatedly bounces users to Google Play, requiring many steps2016-06-04
- Message flood in group chats makes it impossible to keep up or follow conversations2014-04-17
Red badge stays after notifications turned off, nagging re-enablingUnreviewed
20082026- Keeps showing red badge after notifications are turned off, nagging users to re-enable them2017-09-19
- Repeated pop-ups and red warning badges keep nagging until user enables notifications and contacts2016-06-04
- Red notification badge appears on both apps when messages arrive, which is annoying2014-04-10
Typed words deleted each time the space key is pressedUnreviewed
20082026- Text gets swallowed when typing fast or overwriting selected text2025-10-14
- Typed words get deleted each time the space key is pressed2018-10-29
- Typed text sometimes isn't accepted by the input box2018-06-16
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Messenger's end-to-end encryption is terrible to use2026-05-09
- Chat history sync in the background is broken and unreliable2026-04-15
- Encryption opted everyone in, and deleting cookies can delete messages2026-03-13
- Documents shown as chats, with one-party conversations and a useless reply button2026-03-03
- The interface barely works on mobile2026-03-03
- Turned-off notifications still send unwanted Facebook stories, so real messages get buried2026-02-20
- Chat UI on facebook.com is much worse than the Messenger desktop app2026-02-18
- Restoring messages demands a PIN the user never set, and resetting it deletes all history2026-02-17
- Modern messaging apps feel clunky and less pleasant to use than older clients2026-02-17
- Videos sent in Messenger force jumps into the Facebook app; scrub bar missing or broken2026-02-17
- Can't turn off Facebook notifications on the web messages page, forcing a choice between notifications and messages2026-02-17
- Mobile site redirects to a prompt to install the app, hiding messages2026-01-30
- Can't display recent chats in the correct order, and the site is confusingly slow2025-12-10
- Must switch to desktop Facebook, then fiddly zooming and focus jumping2025-11-26
- Pasting a Unicode character always inserts an unwanted leading space2025-11-04
- Blinking Meta AI icon is intrusive and hard to ignore, pulling attention away from normal use2025-10-18
- Text gets swallowed when typing fast or overwriting selected text2025-10-14
- Using Facebook in a browser is painful after Messenger Lite and mobile browser mode were removed2025-06-10
- Messenger now shows a feed users didn't ask for, cluttering the app2025-04-29
- Sends repeated notifications about the same message hours later, pushing re-engagement2025-03-17
- Notifications arrive minutes late and unread count gets stuck showing messages that aren't there2025-03-03
- Messages get lost and state breaks after syncing for about 30 seconds2025-01-23
- Opening Messenger and chat groups takes seconds of waiting2024-12-01
- Typing lags up to two seconds per letter, making the text box unusable2024-11-10
- Ads and a stories tab creeping in that the user can't get rid of2024-05-20
- Messenger needs desktop-site request, login each time, and zooming out to be usable2024-05-16
- Can't stop the app waking the phone screen on every notification2024-04-12
- Messenger's UI and wording are unintuitive for newcomers, especially for texting and calling2024-02-06
- Web version forces login each time and lacks push notifications2024-01-21
- Searching self-sent saved notes in Messenger is bad, so they are hard to find again2023-12-13
- Some chat apps make users manually exchange keys, which is painful to use2023-12-07
- Web version on mobile forces users to install the app instead2023-12-07
- Contacts split across chat apps, so user must remember which app each prefers2023-12-06
- Back button returns to Facebook home screen instead of Messenger, needing many extra taps2023-11-27
- Stuck on "waiting for network" and can't log in to the new app2023-10-19
- Login cycles endlessly through the same three pages, blocking access2023-10-19
- Choosing Google Maps opens the App Store page despite the app being installed2023-08-30
- Messenger on a phone browser is blocked, forcing an app install2023-07-14
- App is bloated with games, bots and ads, hard to just message friends2023-07-04
- Half-typed message disappears after switching to another app and back2023-05-13
- Couldn't find any way to delete the account; support links circled without help2023-03-31
- E2EE must be enabled separately per contact or chat, so users don't get it by default2023-03-05
- Android keeps killing the app despite user settings, making it almost unusable2023-01-22
- Notification bubble couldn't be dismissed and just opened the app install page2022-12-26
- Messenger now requires installing a separate app, forcing users off the website2022-11-30
- Links open in an in-app browser with no option to choose the default browser2022-08-19
- Web app pushes users toward the phone version through dark patterns2022-08-10
- Can't hide or mark the account as unused, so messages arrive and go unseen for months2022-07-30
- Mobile site pushes users to install the app instead of using Messenger in browser2022-06-19
- Typing requests to bots is slower and riskier than tapping app buttons, with unreliable parsing2022-05-22