Messenger comes without FB account compulsion

New York: Now, a Facebook account is not required to sign up for Messenger, the social networking giant has announced. The company apparently felt that tying Messenger to Facebook forever was hampering the former's potential growth, Wired.com reported.

"People can easily message with their Facebook friends and contacts, access their Facebook messages and take advantage of multi-device messaging across mobile devices, the web and tablets," Boval said. And when you sign up for Messenger with your phone number, you can easily sync your phone's contacts, making that advantage somewhat moot.